Power
THE Ministry of Power says it is working on an appropriate legislation that will drive local content improvement of the sector.
The Minister of Power, Mr Adebayo Adelabu said this in Abuja on Thursday in a meeting with Electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos) and key stakeholders in the sector.
Adelabu said: ”we have all decided as a team to deliberately work on improving the local content in the power sector by working on a legislation that will drive compliance with local contents improvement in the operation of the sector.
”To achieve this goal, we will also put together appropriate policies that will support this and enable the ease of compliance by the power sector operators.
”At the same time, appropriate regulations will also be rolled out to ensure compliance and add value to the local contents bill. To achieve this, we are going to set up a committee that will start working on the issue.
The minister said that the committee would gather data, do a lot of engagement and investigation across all the three segments in the power sector, from generation to transmission and to distribution.
According to him, recent visits to some local manufacturers have confirmed that there are indeed a good number of manufacturers that can give some impressive proportion of what we want in the power sector.
”We also need to collaborate with the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) to ensure that we collaborate in achieving this.
Adelabu said that there was already a legislation at the National Assembly on local content that encompasses the power sector, adding that the committee would work on accelerating the passage of the bill on local content.
”if there is need for a public hearing, we will all go there as power sector stakeholders to defend this bill.
”I am sure that the President Bola Tinubu will not hesitate to sign this bill into law as soon as it is passed.
”The advantages of this cannot be over-emphasised. It starts from job creation for unemployed youths. It reduces their idleness, ”he said.
The minister said that the power sector achieved 5,155 Megawatts (MW) on August 8, keeping the sector on the right track to achieving 6,000(MW) by end of 2024.
”We have to sustain it. So we have all identified the impediments to achieving this, which we have discussed here as a team.
”We are working on metering, we are working on transmission lines to ensure that the 6,000 megawatts target for December 2024 ,” he said.
On the debts owed DisCos by Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs), he said that the issue was a major burden as it affects liquidity. We have discussed this extensively.
To this end, he said that the ministry was working with other stakeholders on ways to ensure payment of the debts (NAN)
A.I
Aug. 16, 2024
Tags: Mr Adebayo Adelabu
