Follow Us on Google
From Ighomuaye Lucky, Benin
Former vice president, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has joined other well-meaning Nigerians to applaud former Power Minister, Prof Barth Nnaji on the successful commissioning of his 188MW Geometric Power Plant in Aba, Abia State.
Atiku, in a statement, said the generating and distributing electricity was consistent with his vision of speeding up Nigeria’s industrialization journey.
“It has taken long, two decades in coming. But soon, the much-needed electricity to unleash the full potential of Aba, the industrial and commercial nerve centre of Abia, will surely make up for the long wait.
“I congratulate and appreciate the efforts of Prof Barth Nnaji and his team to deliver on this project despite all the (political and) business environment obstacles. His tenacity and demonstration of the ‘can-do spirit’ is exemplary. It is remarkable that the governor of Abia state had stayed the course of the project that he had made an initial contribution to as a private sector person. Equally worthy of congratulation is the enterprising people of Abia”, Atiku stated.
He described the project as a privilege the people of Abia must be thankful for as more than 40% of Nigeria’s 220 million people do not have access to electricity.
“I have all along been concerned that the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) has over the years suffered from inadequate investments, failure of generation, transmission, and distribution infrastructure.
“Nigeria’s core infrastructure stock is very low, estimated at 35-40% of GDP, below the international benchmark of 70% and below South Africa 87%, Indonesia 70%, China 76% and India 58%.
“The finances required to bridge Nigeria’s infrastructure gap are in the region of $100 billion per annum over the next 30 years. “Nigeria does not have the resources to provide all of its infrastructure needs without sacrificing investments in education, health, and other social services. It should be remembered that Nigeria struggles to budget no more than $30 billion annually
“For these reasons, I have been an ardent advocate of private sector presence in Nigeria. I have all along advocated for a private sector friendly business environment so we could leverage its enormous resources, including finance, skills, and technology. I doubt if the Abia state government would have been able to execute this mega project with the resources at its disposal”, he added.
