Ministerial-nominee, Mallam Nasir Elrufai said Nigeria has about 13 thousand megawatts of installed power generation capacity but hardly distribute more than 4 to 5 thousand megawatts.
The former governor of Kaduna State made this revelation when he appeared before the Senate for screening on Tuesday.
Elrufai added that for Nigeria to improve power distribution, the federal government needs to first look at what’s constraining its full production.
According to him, many generation stations can not produce due to poor gas supply, stressing that 80 per cent of power generation is from gas, and the balance is hydro.
He reiterated that lack of adequate gas supply to power most stations has bedevilled the country’s power generation in the last 20 years.
The nominee furthered that transmission infrastructures must be put in place to improve power supply in Nigeria, noting despite the privatisation of the distribution subsector in 2013 leaving the Federal government with just 40 while private investors hold onto the remaining 60 percent, only about 3 out of the 11 participating company are doing well while about five of them have been taking over by banks due to their failure to pay back their loans
Elrufai stated that politics must be jettisoned in the transmission procurement processes if the country must revamp the power sector.
He gave assurance that thorough attention will be given to ownership of distribution companies as more capital would be injected into the system with the introduction of new investors with technical and financial wherewithal for expansion.
He, however, implored the lawmakers to come up with various legislations that will turn around the petroleum industry and move the nation out of darkness completely.
