The Federal Government, on Monday, said a total of 3.24 million buildings in 3,937 settlements have been mapped and currently connected to the country’s power grid.
It disclosed this in Abuja at the 5th National Council on Power, which had the theme, ‘Sustaining and Improving Electricity Supply through the Power Sector Value Chain for Socio-economic Growth’.
The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Power, Temitope Fashedemi, revealed this while outlining some of the recent milestones achieved by the FMP.
She said, “The ministry through collaboration under Nigerian Energy Support Programme has achieved the following: a. Mapped over 3,937 settlements, 3,244,605 buildings and 60,183km of 11 and 33kV medium voltage line of the grid in 23 states.
“The data provides information for electrification planning, least cost of electrification, electricity access and decision making.”
She, however, decried the persistent bottlenecks dragging the required growth of the sector, identifying some of them as: inadequate gas supply, transmission right-of-way issues and vandalism, and poor maintenance of distribution system.
“All these cause liquidity issues in the sector and subsequently lead to inadequate power to meet the needs of the people,” she stated.
Fashedemi added, “The council is expected to design an action log to track the implementation of the decisions and directives at the meeting and ensure policy initiatives that will make available, sustainable power supply within the shortest possible time.”
On his part, the Managing Director, Transmission Company of Nigeria, Sule Abdulaziz, said the TCN had awarded contracts for several new transmission lines.
He said, “While some of the construction works are ongoing, others are at different stages of completion.
“These include the re-conductoring of 16 transmission lines, and 17 others under the Service Level Agreement projects to further reinforce the grid for optimal evacuation and transmission of bulk electricity.”
