Power plants across northern parts of the country are largely dormant despite huge investments running into trillions of naira, Daily Trust on Sunday investigations have shown.
From Abdullateef Aliyu (Lagos), Hamisu Kabiru Matazu, Olatunji Omirin (Maiduguri), Tijjani Ibrahim (Katsina), Ibrahim Musa Giginyu (Kano), Magaji Isa Hunkuyi (Jalingo) &Abubakar Akote (Minna)
The Federal Government in its quest to address the perennial power challenge in the country has over the years invested billions worth of naira in building power plants across the country to boost power generations.
However, despite the huge investments made on these power plants, many of them are yet to generate any significant megawatt to the National Grid, thus worsening the country’s power problem.
As of July 2023, the country power generation was put at about 3,970.33 megawatts, according to data collated from the National Energy System Operator; a semi autonomous unit of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN). This is a far cry from what the country requires to meet its power needs.
According to the Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED), Nigeria needs to generate about 33,000 Megawatts to have stable electricity.
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ANED’s Executive Director, Research and Advocacy, Mr Sunday Oduntan, who spoke in Yola at a stakeholders’ workshop organised in collaboration with the MacArthur Foundation, said more needed to be done to boost power generation in the country.
Findings by Daily Trust on Sunday show that a number of these power plant projects have remained largely dormant while those which are said to have been completed are not functioning optimally or operating below expectation due to one issue or the other.
