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Power generation falls by 743MW in one week

By BusinessNews Staff on January 7, 2015

Peak power generation fell by 742.9 megawatts in the last one week to 3,646.8MW on January 4, 2015, down from 4,389.7MW recorded on December 29, 2014.

The quantum of electricity available for distribution to various classes of consumers as of December 29, 2014 was 4,112.29MW out of the 4,389.7MW generated, but this fell by 697.08MW to 3,415.21MW on January 4, 2015, according to figures obtained by our correspondent from the Federal Ministry of Power on Monday.

This is coming as analysts at First Bank of Nigeria Capital Research are predicting that adequate supply of electricity to industries will increase by almost three basis points the country’s Gross Domestic Product to 6.5 per cent.

Nigeria’s GDP grew by 6.23 per cent in the third quarter of 2014, higher by 1.06 percentage points than the rate recorded in the third quarter of 2013, and lower by 0.31 percentage points than the second quarter of 2014 growth figure.

The National Bureau of Statistics has yet to release the country’s GDP for the fourth quarter of 2014.

FBN Capital, in its latest report on the country’s manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index, stated that if the electricity needs of industries were met, the GDP would increase by about 2.7 per cent.

“Our research concludes that Nigeria could boost its GDP growth by about two percentage points if the electricity industry is able to meet consumption demand. The Finance minister has estimated the negative impact of the insecurity in the North-East at half a percentage point annually,” the firm stated in the report.

The Federal Government failed to meet its target of 5,000MW power generation at the end of December 2014 despite making several promises.

The Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo, had blamed the continuous fall in power generation on the incessant rupturing of pipelines supplying gas to the power plants, stating that the activities of gas pipelines vandals were dragging the sector backward.

Meanwhile, FBN Capital, in its report which our correspondent got on Monday, noted that its latest headline reading showed a robust pick-up from 55.8 posted in November to 60.4.

It said the responses of the larger firms were generally worse than the previous month, adding that their planning would be more governed by the macro conditions than the other firms, and less undermined by the operating environment.

It noted that the middle and small-scale firms accounted for 75 per cent of national employment across sectors, adding that it was not surprised by the large movements in the monthly readings because of the challenging operating backdrop.

The PMI, according to the report, takes the temperature of Nigeria’s manufacturing sector.

The PMI report joins a number of existing surveys of business and consumer confidence and expectations and is developing into a core forward economic indicator for analysts, policymakers and financial market players.

[Punch]

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