BY AKUDORO GLORIA

The Federal Government has urged the European Union (EU) to continue to provide technical, financial, and other forms to aid to Nigeria with a particular emphasis on the power sector.

The government noted that the sector is critical to the optimal performance of the economy.

The Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu made the call at the weekend when he received the EU Ambassador to Nigeria, Gautier Mignot, in his office in Abuja. He expressed Nigeria’s readiness to continue to work and collaborate with the Union and all its development partners in achieving both bilateral and multilateral agreements.

Adelabu stressed on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s unwavering support in ensuring the sector meets it targets, and also appreciated the enormous financial support that the power sector has received from European Union nations, including Germany, France and many others along with their development partners.

He expressed delight in receiving the envoy and optimistic that the meeting would guarantee mutual advantages for both parties, fostering bilateral and multilateral relations.

“First, let me thank you and welcome you. When I got the information that you wanted to meet with me, I wasn’t surprised. I was also excited to receive you in my office because we are trying everything possible to ensure that we benefit from bilateral and multilateral relationships when it comes to gaining experience of the Western nations on the issue of power. And like you rightly put it, the power sector is so critical to the optimal performance of every other sector. Without power, it would be tough for other sectors to perform actively, which is why Mr. President has placed so much premium and priority to transforming the Nigeria power sector.

“We have a history that we are not proud of. Over 60 years of electricity in Nigeria and we are still at this level of epileptic supply to households, businesses, and industries. In fact, we got electricity before some European countries. So those that got electricity after us have stabilised their supply. They have made their supply reliable, and they are benefiting from it through visible economic growth and industrial development. And today, we are still import-dependent on the majority of the things that we use in Nigeria, not because we don’t have the raw materials to produce these things, but because of the lack of reliability and functionality of our power sector”, the Minister said.

During the meeting, the Minister underscored the giant strides recorded since the inception of this administration, noting that there has been a lot of improvement since President Tinubu took over power and has initiated reforms that are yielding positive results and transforming the sector.

He said: “We have seen some reasonable improvements since this new administration came in. In three basic areas. Number one, in the area of energy access expansion. We have extended the grid to so many areas where there were no grid extensions. And we have also exploited renewable energy in our rural areas and semi-urban areas that were either underserved or unserved. Renewable energy in terms of solar energy, most especially, and we have small dams which we are using for hydro power supply. So we have achieved some level of energy expansion in terms of new generation”.

The Minister disclosed that the revolution that is ongoing in the sector was as result of the bold step of President Tinubu, when he signed the Electricity Act of 2023.

“The second intervention with regard to the transmission is the Presidential Power Initiative (PPI), and you will recognize it better when I say Siemens Project. So we are actually securing the finance of close to 2.3 billion dollars to ensure that we revamp or transform our transmission segments. And the government of Germany has been very instrumental to ensure this works.

“The Siemens is handling lots of the critical transmission projects there. We also have some reputable Chinese firms too, that are doing some distribution projects, based on each company’s specialty and track records. That is working well. We have almost completed the pilot phase of that project, which involved importation, installation, commissioning, and energisation of 10 power transformers across the country and another set of 10 mobile substations,” the Minister added.