120m Nigerians in darkness – Minister

Despite huge investments in the power sector over the years, no fewer than 120 million Nigerians are still living in darkness, the Minister of State for Power, Hajiya Zainab Kuchi, has said.
Kuchi was speaking to State House correspondents on Wednesday during the post-Federal Executive Council meeting presided over by President Goodluck Jonathan.
The minister however expressed optimism that by July this year, the ongoing privatization of the sector would have been concluded, with the situation in the power sector expected to get better.
She said: “What we intend to do this year to move the power sector to another level. Privatization is at its conclusion stage come July. What we need to focus on is the commercialisation of the power sector, considering where we are and the fact that we are only giving power to only 40 million.
“We have 160 million Nigerians now and we are only giving power to 40 million of that population.
“What it means is that there are about 120 million Nigerians that are without power and wish to buy power.”
Kuchi said government is determined to explore energy mix, which, according to her, will enable power to be generated from wind, solar, hydro, renewable energy and coal.
She also stressed the need to explore further the National Integrated Power Projects, with a view to allowing massive investment by foreign firms.
She said: “We are looking forward into energy mix. What we are looking at are ways that will bring in so many other options and the only way we can power Nigeria is we have agreed, is to look forward to IPPs.
“We keep on saying we shouldn’t allow imperialism. Yes we want foreign direct investment but we also want Nigerians to take ownership. If power sells on the street, power can sell better because everybody wants power 24/7.
“So if we come together by way of synergy and we are able to build consortiums and the Independent Power Projects come in to address the issue of power need, it will not only be government looking for funding to do this.
“The energy mix that we want to come up with – there is solar, wind and hydros. And all these things are available in form of access to Nigerians. We need to deliver power to Nigerians and the only way to do this is by serious commercialization.”
Hajiya Kuchi also contended that more money can be made in power than petroleum once there is huge investment.
She said: “There is even more money in power than in Petroleum, all you need is a power plant and you will make money by the day. The government has tried, we have all sorts of encouragement, we could go into coal, renewable energy so we need clusters of the windmill.”