Nigeria’s power challenges will be over within the next seven years with the implementation of the vision, plans and programmes of the President Tinubu’s government, Nasir El-Rufai, the ministerial nominee from Kaduna state said at his Senate screening.
El-Rufai, the former governor tapped by Tinubu to solve Nigeria’s power challenges had been involved in the sector long enough to know where all the bones are buried. He was a former director general of the Bureau of Public Enterprise and drafted the rules for Nigeria’s power sector privatisation as well as an early draft of what became the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).
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In response to the long-winded question by Abdul’aziz Yari, Senator representing Zamfara on what he would do about the challenges in the power sector, El-Rufai said the electricity supply situation in Nigeria has defied every government for 60 years, but President Ahmed Tinubu is committed to ensuring that Nigeria has stable and reliable electricity supply within the next seven years.
“Because without electricity industrialisation is a pipedream, without electricity even agriculture today is not a viable proposition,” he said.
The former governor explained that the vision was to fix power generation challenges that constrain gas to power plants, starting with putting gas and power under one roof.
He said the ministry will also remove politics from the business of transmission asset procurement and review the ownership and management structure of the DisCos and that a management that is technically and financially competent will run the DisCos.
Tariffs would also be reviewed to make them guarantee commercial returns while putting an end to estimated billing.
He called for the support of the lawmakers in reviewing the electricity act 2023 as well as sections of the Petroleum Industry Act that has a bearing on the power sector.
