The Federal Government on Monday said it will require a total capital outlay of $3.4 billion between now and 2016 to evacuate all the power currently being generated in the country.
The declaration came just as the Federal Government power reform programme entered a new phase on Monday with the signing of power reform transaction contracts at the Presidential Villa, Abuja amidst encomium on government for mid-wiving a transparent process.
Government, however, said it is working out the funding arrangement for Transmission Company of Nigeria’s (TCN) long term expansion plan from a mix which will include the transmission development fund, international development banks and multilateral agencies.
President Goodluck Jonathan in his speech at the occasion said he was particularly pleased to hear directly from the private sector that the process was transparent, adding that the stories of corruption were untrue.
The president, who was obviously elated by the out-pouring of encomium on his administration for the way it has handled the privatisation process, declared that the issue of corruption in Nigeria has been over amplified.
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“Let me continue to assure Nigerians that yes there are issues of corruption in this country but somehow it has been over-amplified. People should watch how we have been conducting government business. We have been bringing down the issues of corruption gradually.
“Look at the power sector, when we started initially there were stories in the papers but at the end, even when I was in the US, companies from there that participated said publicly that the process was transparent and issues of corruption was not there.
“At least today we have also heard directly that the process was transparent and that there were no issues of manipulations or corruptions”.
The president appealed to Nigerians on the need to have faith in his administration’s efforts to tackle the issue of corruption, adding that “the country belongs to all of us and we will all protect what belongs to us, what belongs to our children and what belongs to the generation yet unborn”.
Chinedu Nebo, power minister, in his speech disclosed that installed available generation capacity has risen to 6,000 megawatts, while generation capability has increased to 5,228 megawatts, with peak generation at slightly above 4,500 megawatts.
“We expect to add additional generation capacity of about 2,200 megawatts from the NIPP projects (1,896 megawatts), IPPs (292 megawatts) and FGN legacy assets (514 megawatts) before the end of 2013”.
The Federal Government, he said, is also investing heavily to boost generation through the large, medium and small hydros with total capacity of over 4,234 megawatts. These include Zungeru, 700 megawatts; Mambilla, 3,050 megawatts; Guarara II, 360 megawatts; Itsi, 40 megawatts; and small hydro power, 84 megawatts.
