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The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, has said that more than 40% of Nigerians now enjoy over 20 hours of electricity daily.
He said this in a statement on Sunday detailing a review of the Ministry of Power’s activities over the past year.
Adelabu emphasized that these achievements are part of the government’s broader effort to provide stable electricity to households and industries across the country.
Adelabu outlined several measures undertaken by the Ministry of Power to achieve this feat. One major accomplishment is the increased power generation, now exceeding 5,500 megawatts.
He explained that the ministry is committed to further improvements before the end of the year.
He said: “Upon resumption, we had an installed generation capacity of 13,000 megawatts, but we were only producing, transmitting, and distributing about 4,000 megawatts of power to the entire country.
“This was quite low and unacceptable given our population and level of economic activities. Therefore, we were determined to improve the situation.
“At that time, there was an epileptic supply. Almost all customers, both residential and commercial, could not be guaranteed 12-15 hours of supply. Additionally, the adoption of renewable energy was skeletal in terms of solar or wind sources of energy.
“Between then and now, which is about a year, there has been significant improvement. Today, our installed capacity is over 14,000 megawatts of power due to the addition of the newly commissioned Zungeru hydroelectric power plant and improved capacity of some of the existing power plants.
“Moreover, the major achievement is the fact that today we generate over 5,500 megawatts of power, we transmit and distribute it, and over 40% of customers today enjoy over 20 hours of regular power supply across the nation. You can see that there is a significant improvement between when we came in and now, which we intend to improve further.”
He attributed the success to various infrastructural upgrades, such as the completion of the Zungeru hydroelectric power plant and the implementation of the Presidential Power Initiative.
The minister also highlighted the signing of the new Electricity Act in June 2023, which decentralized and liberalized the power sector, allowing states and private entities to participate in electricity generation, transmission, and distribution.
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