By Abdul Razaq Ibrahim
Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo has disclosed that large scale corrupt practices and dubious awards of contracts in Nigeria’s power sector by past administrations, especially as regards contract on power transmission lines are responsible for inadequate and epileptic power supply in the country.
He said that despite several billions of dollar investment in power generation and distribution over the years by government, businesses and Nigerians still suffer greatly on account of lack of power supply. He said there should be total overhaul in the sector in terms of generation and distribution if all efforts on power production must be achieved.
The Vice-President, who delivered 10th Anniversary Lecture of Crescent University, Abeokuta tagged “The Nigerian Economy and the Future” on Saturday, submitted that records showed that series of contracts were awarded in the power sector for several years and are still ongoing without tangible improvement.
Professor Osinbajo revealed that though Nigeria needs more than 10,000MW to stabilise economic growth, the present capacity of power transmission lines cannot distribute more than 5,000 MW since the improvement works on transmission lines have been stagnant over years and should be improved upon if Nigeria must achieve tangible output from the sector.
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He said, “Unfaithful to awards of contract and execution of contracts being awarded are the major challenges. Several contracts in that regards have been awarded several years back, but have not been completed.
“What is being produced now is less than 3,000MW. Our transmission grid today can only transmit 5,000 MW and we need to improve on transmission capacity to transmit enough power needed to stabilise economy. That is why the private investors have to increase capital investment in power sector.”
He also declared that the fertility rate of Nigerians are increasing every year, whereas the wealth of the country is not growing enough to match it, explaining that unless the nation’s gross domestic product increase by double digit annually, the increasing population may be difficult to sustain with available resources.
While emphasising that over 100 million Nigerians live below the poverty line, he added that a situation where the fertility rate is 6%, there should also be an urgent move to spur growth in all sectors of the nation’s economy by at least 10% annually in order to enhance Nigeria’s capacity to cater for the population effectively.
He however, hinted that some tough decisions would have to be taken to put the country back on the path of genuine growth and development in line with the All Progressives Party Congress programmes, adding that the Buhari-led APC government would encourage huge investment in Nigeria’s economy to make its competitive globally.
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