Nigeria’s Vice President, Senator Kashim Shettima, has inaugurated the Light-up Nigeria project in the South-East. The project aims to accelerate power supply to industrial areas in the region.
While inaugurating the project at the old government lodge, Enugu, Shettima said it was part of the ongoing efforts to improve energy supply to industrial areas across the country.
He assured southeasterners that President Bola Tinubu has good plans for the region and added that “If the South-East works, Nigeria will work.”
The Light-up Nigeria Project is led by the Niger Delta Power Holding Company Limited (NDPHC) owned by the Federal Government.
The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the NDPHC, Mr Chinedu Ugbo, stated that the event offered an opportunity for the business community in the South-East to rub minds with the Vice President.
Ugbo said: “The Light-up Nigeria project, which is the focus of today’s event, is led by Niger Delta Power Holding Company Limited. The NDPHC, a government-owned company, is responsible for implementing the National Integrated Power Project and operates a portfolio of gas thermal electricity generation assets in Nigeria. However, the optimal utilisation of these assets has been hindered by technical challenges and market constraints.
“One major challenge is the lack of sufficient transmission and distribution infrastructure to transport power from the plants. To underscore this point, just last Friday, we received the Honourable Minister of Power at our 500MW Benin (Ihovbor) power plant. This power plant shares the transmission facilities with Azura-Edo power plant next door with over 460 MW. The two plants together can generate over 900MW.
“The honourable minister witnessed first-hand the level of underutilization of the NDPHC generation plant as a result of the transmission constraint. However, the Transmission Company of Nigeria is now working assiduously towards resolving that constraint in that power plant.”
While identifying financial constraints as another challenge in the electric power sector in the country, he said: “The huge indebtedness to the generation companies affects the ability of the generation companies to pay for gas supply leading to gas supply shortage and the resulting low generation.”
In his remarks, Governor the Executive Governor of Enugu State, Peter Mbah, said the Light-Up Nigeria Project signaled a new dawn for power and industrialization of the South-East region.
He said: “The Light-up Nigeria Project today is, in my view, a new dawn for power in the South-East and one of the most innovative initiatives in the power sector. This project is of critical importance since it deals with the power sector, which I believe is pivotal to economic growth. Indeed, if we fix power, a lot of other sectors would fall into place.
“This project ensures efficient dispatch of power to the largest consumers via bilateral sales agreements, which overrides the existing bulk purchase arrangements through NBET, leveraging on a willing buyer, willing seller structure.”
