Aso Rock Villa, the official residence of Nigeria’s president is quitting power distribution companies to buy power directly from power generation companies, the Federal Government has said.
Rising from the Federal Executive Council meeting on Wednesday, Babatunde Fashola, minister of Power, Works and Housing said this came as a response to a memorandum his ministry submitted earlier seeking approval to include the Villa in the Distribution Expansion Programme earlier approved by the Council to enable 2,000MW of currently unutilized generation capacity to be distributed to targeted metered customers.
In a press release issued to media houses on Friday signed by Hakeem Bello, a spokesperson for the ministry, said that approved alongside the Villa project was the final payment for the completion of the Afam 240 MW Power Plant in Rivers State, the construction of Dedicated Solar Power System for the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing Headquarters in Mabushi and the concession of five Hydro Dams to facilitate electricity supply to Rural and Agrarian communities across the country.said top among the approvals.
The Eligible Customer Regulation, which was issued by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) in mid-2017, permits electricity customers to buy power directly from the generation companies in line with the provisions of Section 27 of the Electric Power Sector Reform Act 2005 whereby Eligible Customers are permitted to buy power from a licensee other than electricity distribution companies.
