The current 4,000mw of electricity generated and distributed to Nigerians daily remains one of the least in the world and can even barely power Lagos alone, the Nigerian Association for Energy Economics (NAEE), has said.
Speaking at a pre-conference briefing in Abuja to herald its 16th NAEE/IAEE Annual International Conference, the President of the association, Prof. Yinka Omorogbe (SAN), noted that Nigeria still treats power like an elite product.
The conference themed: ‘‘Energy Evolution, Transition and Reform: Prospects for African Economies’’, will be chaired by the Chief Executive, Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), Mr Gbenga Komolafe and will be opened by Prof. Jean-Michael Glachant, the President of the International Association for Energy Economics (IAEE).
Also billed to speak during the event scheduled for 9-11 July, will be the Secretary General, African Petroleum Producers Organisation (APPO), Dr Omar Ibrahim, the Executive Secretary, Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF), Dr. Bello Gusau, among several others.
Omorogbe, who was accompanied to the event by a Vice President of the group, Priscilla Ekpe; Secretary, Ere Yalla; Treasurer, Dr Margaret Hilili and others, explained that the power situation is even worse now than it was in the past.
“The electricity sector in Nigeria is nothing to write home about and it’s one of the worst in the world. The truth of the matter is that we have generally not done things in a holistic fashion.
“If you are talking about electricity within any country, you have to be talking about electricity for everybody and every type of industry. We don’t. When we’re talking about electricity, we are almost treating it like an elite product and thinking of electricity as what we give to the urban people.
“Everybody has to have it. It’s not like right now in Nigeria where what everybody has a generator. That should not be so. In other countries, for instance in England, they will apologise to you. If for any reason the light goes off for a time, they will bring you a generator and that generator will be utilised in your area,” she stressed.
She argued that Nigeria must improve its grid system, work on establishing mini-grids and other stand-alone isolated renewable solutions to avoid the frequency of erratic power supply in the country.
“Blackouts are supposed to be timed. But where you’re talking about an abysmally small amount of electricity, it’s difficult. I mean, you’re talking about 4,000 megawatts, which is not enough for Lagos, let alone talking about the whole Nigeria.
“If you’re talking about a country that says it will increase electricity and they say we will have 20,000 mw in a few years time, that’s ridiculous. We’re talking about a country that needs multiples more than that.
“We’re talking about a country that needs electricity to power its industries. There is no industry that is functioning in Nigeria without its own generators.
“So in the first place, we’ve never even got it right about how much electricity we need. And then we’ve never even planned to be able to have enough electricity for everybody. Arguably, we can actually say it’s probably worse now than it was before,” she maintained.
On the recent fuel subsidy removal, she noted that while it was the right decision to take, the impact will have to be cushioned to reduce the pains felt by Nigerians.
“The subsidy was just a huge avenue for a lot of terrible practices. And we were giving products to the whole of West Africa. We can be a supplier for the region, but let us be supplying in the real sense, not at our own expense there. There were too many loopholes. There was a lot of fraud. So, it’s really a step in the right direction,” Omorogbe pointed out.
Emmanuel Addeh
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