Hopes are high that in about two months, there will be a final settlement of all the outstanding issues which will lead to the completion of the work before the commencement of the much awaited steady power supply to the industrial city of Aba and its environs.
It is expected that the rehabilitation of the three power sub-stations originally built by the defunct National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) which was initially truncated during the period of the dispute, would be completed speedily bringing to seven, the number of power substations for the ring fence.
The other four state-of-the-art substations built from scratch by the project promoters had long been completed.
Sources close to the project told BusinessDay, that the power plant was initially scheduled to come online by October this year, following the breakthrough by the Federal Government in resolving the dispute arising from the privatisation of Enugu DISCO but scarcity of foreign exchange and the subsequent implementation of the floating foreign exchange policy derailed the pace of work.
There are also indications that upon take-off, the next phase of the 141MW multi-million dollar power project would commence, upgrading the plant to 500MW capacity, having secured further backing from US Overseas Private Investment Corporation and General Electric.
With a guarantee of 95 percent uninterrupted power supply, our correspondent reveal that residents of the commercial city and environs are very expectant of the new lease of life that will come with the uninterrupted power supply but more importantly, the jobs that will be created from the influx and increased commercial and industrial activities. Already, industries are gearing up to ramp up production lines with some factories making demands for dedicated power packages.
According to analysts, availability of between 12 and 18 hours of electricity would spike the $200 million shoes and garment industry in the city. This will further reduce the production costs of over 80,000 manufacturers of shoes, bags, belts, trunk boxes and other industries in the city and state, while enabling them to supply more of their products to the African market to earn foreign exchange. Some analysts add that Aba will now have more industrial clusters, as more real sector businesses will likely spring up.
“The fundamental outcome is that this city, in a few years when this power is reliable, will begin to merge with Port Harcourt, so the whole area would become a large expanse of commercial hub,” an Aba-based industrialist observed.
Industrial and commercial activities which Aba is reputed for, have seen a significant decline over the years, due largely to the poor power situation. As at 2005, there were about 165 industries in the city. However, due to epileptic power supply, the number of the industries operating in the city at present is less than 30 with massive job loss.
“Apart from the traders and civil servants, more than 65 percent of Aba residents are idle now, because Aba is an industrial and commercial town and most of the factories are not in operation because of lack of power. And that has its consequences, as workers were retrenched”, said a resident.
An Aba-based real estate and housing marketing consultant told BusinessDay that the expected constant electricity would stimulate industrialisation in Aba, thereby spurring real estate activities, noting that several estate developers are already jostling to invest in Aba, which currently has a huge housing deficit.
“Already in Aba, a plot of land in the Government Reserved Area (GRA) now goes for between N20 million and N30 million. In Umungasi and Abayi, it is a minimum of N4 million. In Ogbor Hill, the cost is between N2.5 million and N3 million, while in Osisioma it ranges between N2.5 million and N3 million”, said the real estate agent.
It will be recalled that the genesis of the ring fence project was during the President Obasanjo administration, when a couple of Aba industrialists approached Geometric Power Limited to discuss how they can replicate the Abuja independent power project in Aba. At the same time, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, then Minister of Finance, and Jim Wolfenson, then President of the World Bank, invited Bart Nnaji, chairman of Geometric Power Limited to go to Aba to meet small scale shoe and leather product manufacturers in the famous Ariaria market.
The producers were asked what their number one need was, to begin to perform better and they said it was electricity. Consequently, the then minister of finance, representing the Federal Government, gave tremendous encouragement to the company to come to Aba to build a power plant for the Aba community.
The company requested from the President that in exchange for not asking for the standard sovereign country guarantee, which all the other international oil companies that build IPPs request, that they be given the Aba territory to supply directly to the consumers.
Geometric Power Limited in 2004, then signed a memorandum of understanding with the Federal Government to build a power plant in Aba, and a year after in April, 2005 signed the Aba concession agreement also with the Federal Government, which gave it the right to distribute power to Aba.
FRANK UZUEGBUNAM
