If the new electricity sector operators invest the estimated $40 billion within the next ten years, they can inevitably create a minimum of 582,000 jobs within the period, experts have said.
“For the generation segment, the construction phase can create 82,000 jobs while the operation phase can ensure 33,000 jobs,’’ said Ranesh Narayanan, who represented Oladele Amoda, MD, Eko Electricity Distribution Company, during the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) Apapa
Branch’s luncheon on ‘Impacting and Transforming the Nigeria Manufacturing Economy through Sustainable Power Sector Reforms’ held last week in Lagos.
‘For the transmission segment, the construction phase can create 89,000 jobs whereas the operation phase has the capacity to make 15,000 jobs available. The distribution segment is usually people-intensive and can
assimilate as 363,000 jobs,’’ he added.
The National Bureau of Statistics puts Nigeria’s unemployment rate at 24 percent, meaning that almost 41 million Nigerians (out of 170 million) are jobless. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, coordinating minister for the economy and minister of finance had earlier said the country’s burgeoning growth is not creating sufficient jobs, adding that there should be concerted efforts to ensure that the unemployment rate is cut down . But experts
say part of the reasons why many sectors, especially the privatized electricity industry, is not creating sufficient jobs and delivering results, is because of a number of unresolved bottlenecks such as lower generation and transmission capacities, lack of infrastructure, population explosion which has led to system overload, obsolete equipment and notably poor metering system.
“A lot of consumers remain un-metered, making it difficult to control power consumption in our homes. Even some consumers who are metered are known to be by-passing the meters,’’ said Mike Uzoigwe, CEO, Egbin Power plc.
Much of the blame has often gone to regulators. For instance, Babatunde Odunayo, chairman, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria Apapa branch told the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) that the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trader is not yet ready to midwife bilateral trading, although some private sector companies are already developing the interest and capacity to sell power to Distribution companies.
But Sam Amadi, CEO, NERC, pointed out that now that NERC is at advanced stages in the implementation of the National Electric Power Policy (NEPP) 2001 plan, electricity inhibiting factors will soon be surmounted, leading to taking full advantage of abundant local energy sources.
ODINAKA ANUDU
