Coming from the successes recorded with the Edo State project, the stakeholders of Azura Independent Power Plants are set to replicate the same in other states of the federation.
The states being considered are Lagos, Kaduna and Cross Rivers, David Ladipo, group managing director and chief executive officer of Azura Power West Africa Limited, disclosed to BusinessDay on the sidelines of a Siemens Customer Forum in Lagos.
Commenting further on the sates, Ladipo said:“Lagos is clearly one of the most forward looking states in that respect, there are a lot of smaller IPPs which have received government’s support. The former governor, Babatunde Raji Fashola, who is now minister of Power, made the setting up of IPPs one of his key objectives, to find a way to be self sufficient in power and the state is now moving to attract investors to the power sector and other infrastructure related projects.
“Lagos is a proactive state which we have seen. In the north, Kaduna State, the new governor there, we have seen what he did when he was the FCT Minister. I’m curious to see how he will perform now and in the next three and a half years.
“But the messages we’ve been getting from people that are developing projects in Kaduna is that it is another good state to go to.
“Cross Rivers is another state where people seem very attracted to developing projects. I don’t want to highlight particular states around the country. Everybody in Nigeria is desperate for power, and they want to find a way to encourage investment in every sector”, he said.
He said even though the company has not approached any of the governments in the states mentioned, it has however done a lot of ground work in those states, adding that it first carried out an extensive research in Edo state before choosing it as a location.
“We did a lot of research work first in Edo State when we were choosing that location and doing the initial engineering design studies before we had any conversations with the government”.
That is happening now in a couple of other locations, talking to the government, you have to do your homework first. Once you are convinced that you have a good location, then you approach the government” he said.
Ladipo, who commended the commitment of Siemens, the equipment, procurement and construction( EPC) contractor for Azura, wants the company to persuade its home government to give support to projects in Nigeria, so that the company can stay ahead of competitors in the country.
Commenting on the recent increase of electricity tariff in the country , he said the action is in the right direction.
“There was a tariff increase last year and for reasons for which I don’t understand those tariffs were reduced, for reasons which I am not prepared to comment on, which I think was a negative move and went against all the good work the commission has done in the preceding years.
“So I think what has happened is that we have just gone back to a position we were in the beginning of last year so it is unfortunate. I think in terms of tariff, we lost a year. I don’t want to be critical of any individual, these things happens”.
On how strategic the distribution companies are to Azura, he said they are strategically important.
“All the money from the sector comes from what the distribution companies collect. If the tariffs are not high enough, there is not enough money to stay in the whole sector. So the sector will breakdown”.
According to him, if the management of those companies are inadequate, there will not be money to sustain the whole sector.
He further observed that Nigeria needs the right tariffs and the right management. He stated that there is need for a management that is focused on reducing collection losses and it will take time. “We are not there at the moment, there’s not enough money that is being collected by the distribution companies after you take account of the losses, it feed the whole value chain”.
Olusola Bello
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