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By Adewale Sanyaolu
Stakeholders have expressed concern over the mass exodus of industries out of the country, warning that the development was capable of worsening the country’s unemployment.
The experts argued that poor power supply across the county has left many industries in comtose which majority, spending over 80 per cent of their revenue on alternative power sources, especially diesel powered generators.
To reverse this trend, the Ladi Adebutu Good Governance Symposium Series organizing committee has announced plans to host its third edition with the theme ‘‘Power for Sustainable Development in Ogun State.’’
Some of the speakers at the symposium included; Adebutu, the convener; Mrs. Folake Soetan, Chief Executive Officer(CEO), Ikeja Electric; who will chair the event; Mr. Sunday Oduntan Director, Research and Advocacy, Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors(ANED), will serve as Co- Chairman and lead speaker while the Co-Speaker is Ehi Uwaifoh.
A statement by the convener said over the past three decades, Ogun State has become the hub for large scale industries, saying the Agbara and Ota industrial zones are household names in Nigeria’s industrial landscape and due to the state’s unique position of being the gateway to the nation’s heartland.
Adebutu maintained that proffering solution to the crisis in the power sector is imperative because the state has the potential to attract many more investors and expand its commercial corridors.
According to him, one of the major challenges facing Nigeria today is the lack of regular supply of electricity for domestic and industrial purposes.
‘‘For decades, the power sector has been hit by this crisis which has meant that the nation is yet to meet its power aspiration. This, has had, fundamental outcomes for Nigeria’s socio-economic productivity and development vision
Quoting data from the Federal Ministry of Power, Adebutu said Nigeria has 23 power generating plants connected to the national grid with a total installed generation capacity of 13,000 MW.
However, he said the average operational generation capacity is about 4500MW of which 7.4 per cent is lost due to weak transmission and up to 27.7 per cent load is rejected at distribution level, thus leaving Nigeria with just 2,519 MW, far below its demand which is estimated at 45,490 MW.
According to him, the deficiency in generating capacity relative to installed capacity is one of the fundamental reasons for the incessant power outages.
