Alex Otti, governor of Abia State, has expressed the readiness of his administration to partner with the European Union (EU) for the development of the various sectors of the state’s economy.
Otti stated this at Government House Umuahia when he received a delegation of the EU, led by Massimo De Luca, head of corporations, who came to the state on a working visit.
Otti took the EU delegation on a tour of the state, which started with the flag off of road projects in Obingwa and Isiala Ngwa LGAs and later had a roundtable discussion with some members of his cabinet. Thereafter, Otti continued with the delegation to tour some parts of the state, which led them to interface with the management Aba Integrated Power.
The governor identified the power sector, restoration of public water schemes, health, agriculture, trade, easy access to raw materials for Aba manufactures, standardization of made-in- Aba goods for export to European markets, among others as areas the state would need collaboration with the EU.
At Geometric Power Plant, Aba, where the governor visited with the European Union delegation, he commended the management for the significant progress made in its effort to supply Aba with stable power.
“I am happy to hear the progress that you have made. If you have 75 megawatts, that means, there is still some power left in the second turbine, and I think it should be over 90 megawatts, if you are operating at full capacity.
“The third turbine should also come on stream anytime soon because anytime it is not working, you are losing money. You can never recall it,” Otti stated.
He charged the management of Geometric Power to wheel the obvious excess power to Umuahia instead of moving it to the national grid, adding that discussions are ongoing in that regard.
“On our own, I was telling Massimo (EU leader of delegation) that we are also discussing with Enugu DisCo on the acquisition of the Umuahia part of the ringed fenced so that, when you have excess capacity monthly, instead of moving it to the national grid, you can just wheel it to Umuahia.
“I have had extensive discussion with Barth Nnaji, who sees that as a profitable possibility,” Otti disclosed.
He appreciated the decision of the company to establish substations in certain areas of Aba, such as Factory Road, noting that it was important to have such injection of power in selected areas.
Otti regretted that the once popular Star Paper Mill was no longer in production in Aba due to lack of power.
He disclosed that soon, it would bounce back as he has been engaging to achieve its revitalization.
“But, in the last six months, we have been engaging to see how we can bring it back to production. I have had to visit AMCON and I think we are at the point where evaluation is being done.
“So, hopefully, before the end of the year, we will be able to have a landing because growing up around here, Star Paper Mill was a behemoth, employing so many people and it operated on a 24 hour basis and one of the most important factors if I remember correctly was power.
“It was actually the inconsistency of power that made the Italian machines that were installed then for over $10 million by Union Bank. I think it was power that made it fail,” Otti explained.
Massimo De Luca, in his speech, said that the delegation was there to assess where the company was in terms of different forms of distribution and finding out the possibility of partnership.
He said that they were targeting catalytic investments from Nigerian investors both, the public and private sectors.
“So, my presence here is to assess where we are in terms of different forms of distribution, the possibility of developing different forms of franchise and to expand effective franchising in Abia and Nigeria. Hoping that Abia will remain the lead and example to follow for other states in Nigeria,” De Luca stated.
Ugo Opiegbe, managing director, Aba Integrated Power Project, earlier in his speech, said that they have an embedded power plant that is gas fired and also a distribution system that is combined with the embedded power plant.
He disclosed that at present 141 megawatts power plant has been built up and commissioned.
Opiegbe said that so far, they had achieved a peak power production of over 75 megawatts, adding that they had built on the distribution side including four brand new injection sub-stations.
He thanked Governor Otti for the assistance received from him since the commissioning of the facility last year and appreciated him for the facility tour which he believed would yield fruit.
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