Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Imo/Abia Branch has appealed to the Federal Government to ensure that Geometric Power plant in Osisioma, Aba has access to gas to enable it power its turbines to provide steady power supply in Aba, the commercial hub of Abia State.
They decried the insesant closure of factories in the area, which they attributed mainly to inadequate power supply and lack of raw materials.
Obasi Uba Ekeagbara, chairman, Imo/Abia Branch of MAN, who made the appeal in an interview with BusinessDay, observed that moribond factories would be resusitated as soon as power supply improves in Aba.
Obasi, who is the executive director, Akachi Industries Limited, said that manufacturers are making efforts to meet with Bart Nnaji, chairman, Geometric Power Limited, officially, to share his challenges and seek dedicated lines from his plant to various facilities.
“If the gas issue is solved and Aba gets steady power supply, dead factories would be revived, while new investments would come into the area.
“Gas is primarily their main raw material and Bart Nnaji, has a lot of burden on his shoulders, interms of loan repayment. Do you think that he will not generate power and sale to pay back his loans, If he has gas?
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“I pity my friend (Bart), because it takes a lion’s heart to do what he is doing, to organise a consortium of investors and put up billions of Naira for a high level investment and you are getting this kind of experience.
“The same thing that I feel is holding Dangote I producing cheaper fuel, is also holding Geometric Power, because they don’t have access to gas. Dangote is still pushing to have his way, which is the same thing Geometric is suffering.
“Why can’t government grant these people access to gas and crude. There is something wrong somewhere. Our leaders don’t care about the people, but I believe that Aba will have steady power supply, if Geometric have access to gas.
“But he is being fraustrated, it’s just terrible. Like I said, the same thing Dangote is going through is what Geometric is facing as well. Unfortunately the two investments have to do with power”, he said.
The management of Geometric Power Limited, foremost integrated energy firm recently, expressed concerns over the severe shortage of natural gas supply to its 188-megawatt plant in the Osisioma Industrial Estate in Aba, Abia State, stating that it is hindering the State’s economic growth.
Currently, gas supply reliability is posing a challenge to the firm’s generation capacity and efficiency.
According to Ugo Opiegbe, managing director, Aba Power Limited Electric (APLE), an electricity distribution arm of Geometric Power Group, “The unreliable gas supply is affecting hundreds of thousands of our customers, particularly manufacturing firms for whose sake Geometric Power built the $800m Aba Integrated Power Project, to accelerate the industrial development of Aba and its environs and serve as a model of electricity development in Nigeria, a promising nation whose growth has been hampered seriously over the decades, by the absence of such basic infrastructure, as reliable power”.
