Power
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THE Federal Government is planning to add an additional 1459MW from 20 power plants to the national grid next year to bring power generation above 6,000Mw.
Babatunde Fashola, minister of Power, Works and Housing, who stated this at the weekend, said despite the 3,000 megawatts, MW, lost to gas pipeline vandalism, power generation peaked at 4,010 MW as at November 5.
Fashola who spoke while giving account of his one year stewardship, said 37 federal universities and seven teaching hospitals would get 120 MW from 37 independent gas and solar power plants to begin the fulfilment of the constitutional requirement of rural electrification
“In addition to transmission, we are working to complete uncompleted power generation projects. Some of the projects that should start coming to conclusion in 2017 are the 215 MW Kaduna Power, 40 MW Kashimbilla Power, (Hydro), 40 MW Gurara I Power (Hydro), 29 MW Dadin Kowa Power (Hydro), 10 MW Katsina Power (Wind) 1,125 MW (14 Solar projects) and the 240 MW Emergency Power Project for Afam (Gas).
“Egbin has restored all its turbines even though it has suffered a gas outage as a result of vandalisation. Kainji, Jebba and Shiroro have increased the number of functional turbines, so they are producing 300 MW extra power during this year’s rainy season, more than they did last year,” Fashola said.
He explained that the second anchor of the ministry’s Rural Electrification Implementation programme would involve the use of small hydro dams to support agriculture and agro processing by providing power.
The ministry, he added, had also done the audits and planning of all the schools in rural areas to benefit from the programme.
“All of these sources of power, with embedded power from Paras Energy 40 MW gas in Lagos, the expected completion of Azura power in Edo, expected gas supply to Ihorbor Gas power plant, Gegeru power, Olorunsogo, Omotosho, Gbarain and others make me hopeful that we can get incremental power,” Fashola said.
On roads, he said the federal government would fix 42 bridges across the country with N277 billion in three years, if the national assembly’s approval is secured.
The minister explained that although construction of houses had not begun, 27 states had already donated land for federal housing schemes and over 500 contracts were ready to be issued for work to begin.
The government, he added, inherited about 206 road projects already contracted out with outstanding completion costs of N1.5 trillion, while the works’ ministry’s share of the 2016 appropriation was N260 billion.
Fashola said: “Our interactions with contractors showed that many of them had not been paid for an average of two to three years before we resumed and this explained the stoppage of work by the contractors, the layoff of workers, and consequently poor condition of many roads.”
He stated that with limited resources and debts owed, the ministry had to choose which of the 206 roads were more urgent and more impactful than others.
“So, our choices were determined by roads that carried the heaviest cargo, to allow farmers, businessmen, industries and travellers move their goods and themselves across the country in order to drive productive activity.
“Secondly, we chose roads that support our energy sufficiency and put our resources in roads leading to and from petroleum tank farms so that we can move petro, diesel and kerosene across Nigeria.
“We also chose roads that led to and from our major sea and airports so that maritime business can go on, to drive the economy. Therefore, we re-mobilized contractors back to work on roads across the six geo-political zones,” Fashola said.
He listed the roads to include the Port Harcourt- Aba, Sokoto – Tambuwal – Makera-Kontagara, Ilorin-Jebba, Loko-Oweto Bridge, Shagamu- Ibadan, Shagamu – Lagos and the Ogbomosho-Oko-Ilogbo-Osogbo roads.
Others are the Funtua-Katsina , Wukari-Akwana , Abriba-Arochukwu – Ohafia, Abuja – Lokoja – Airport, Oji-Achi-Obeagu-Mmaku-Awgu-Ndeaboh-Mpu-Okpanku , Ajase Ipo-Offa- Erinle-Osun State boundary and Ikot Ekpene border- Aba-Owerri dualisation.
Fashola added: “We also paid consultants who are supervising these roads and had been denied payment for two to three years. This has helped to recover lost jobs, and put some money back in circulation.”
He said the authority of states controllers of works would be restored to so as to enhance maintenance of the roads “and gradually restore our highways to contemporary quality.”
The minister explained that next year’s budget would pay attention to roads that lead to and from major food producing states, those in states that produce minerals from mining activity or where there are strategic fuel depots.
For housing, he noted that simple designs of one, two and three-bedroom bungalows had been completed which reflect cultural, climatic and land use peculiarities of the northern and southern states.
“We have also identified inputs like doors, windows, tiles, paint, roofing materials that can be made locally and we have resolved to use only made in Nigeria inputs unless there is no local production capacity,” Fashola said.
— Nov 14, 2016 @ 16:00 GMT
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