FG admits gross deficit in electricity supply

The Federal Government on Thursday admitted that there was gross deficit in electricity supply throughout the country but appealed to the citizens to give it a chance to correct the anomalies in the industry through the proposed reforms.
The Minister of Power, Prof. Bart Nnaji, said this in Abuja during a meeting initiated by the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chief Emeka Wogu, with the Trade Union Congress, Nigeria Labour Congress and the National Electricity Regulatory Commission over the reforms in the sector, especially the new electricity tariff scheduled to take off on June 1, 2012.
However, NLC officials did not attend the meeting with its Acting General Secretary, Mr. Owei Lakemfa, explaining that the leadership was holding a crucial meeting and could not appear at the meeting.
Nnaji promised that the country would witness remarkable improvement in electricity generation and distribution from June.
He said the expected improvement in the power sector would not be different from what took place in the telecommunications sector of the economy.
The minister said, “Give us a chance. In fact, I will make you a promise; starting from next month, you will begin to see power grow in this country and it will not be reversible.
“The kind of change we enjoyed after the liberalisation of the telecommunications sector is the same we will have with these reforms in the power sector.”
Nnaji, who also spoke on some breakthroughs recorded through the reforms, said the United States Exim Bank had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Federal Government to provide $1.5bn of the $10bn deal with General Electric for the provision of 10,000 megawatts of electricity by 2020.
Source