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75% Nigerians to be on national grid by 2020 -FG

By on February 18, 2014

The Federal Government on Monday in Abuja gave hope to electricity consumers especially the rural populace with a declaration that by 2020, about 75 per cent of the country’s population and households would be connected to the national grid.

The Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo, expressed the optimism at the opening ceremony of the 7th annual conference of the Nigerian Association for Energy Economics with the theme ‘Energy Access for Economic development: The policy, institutional framework and strategic option’.

He said, “We are getting these things ready. Government is investing a huge amount of resources to make sure that most communities in Nigeria that are not connected to the national grid eventually get connected to the national grid. That is going to happen. By the grace of God, it will not be long. By 2020, 75 per cent of all Nigerians population and all households will be connected to the national grid.

“What the government of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has already put in place is dynamic with infrastructural development that is not only conceived but also being implemented in extensive grid transmission and will soon make a national grid that will make it possible.

“By the grace of God, we will be able to achieve that and for those that are not connected to the national grid, we are making efforts to make sure that they have power upgrade that is sufficient for them to regard themselves also as first class Nigerians.”

Nebo explained that the Federal Government was developing a robust renewable energy policy not based on one arm of government, saying it wanted to integrate energy efficiency and conservation in the policy.

He said, “We are going to segregate between pure renewable energy policy, energy efficiency, conservation policy. So we are working now to make sure that very soon, that will be made something for all Nigerians and that is why we are trying to make sure that we get all the stakeholders involved in the realization of this policy so that nobody will say they were not consulted.”

Nebo added that from the recent vandalism of the nation’s gas pipeline, the Federal Government had learnt not to depend of one source of energy.

According to him, the Federal Government has, in its energy policy, decided to go beyond a monolithic energy source to the development of an energy mix to complement gas.

He said the Federal Government had already commenced the  700 Mega Watts  Hydroelectric Project in  Zungeru, Niger State.

 

 

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