Nigeria’s Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, says Nigeria needs $10 billion investments annually for 20 years to have stable power supply.
Speaking at the inauguration of 2.5mw solar hybrid power project at the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) on Tuesday in Kaduna in Northern Nigeria, ,Adelabu said that Nigeria would need annual investments of $10 billion in the power sector for 20 years to bridge the infrastructure deficit which had lasted for over 60 years due to lack of maintenance and additional investments.
“For us to achieve functional, reliable, and stable electricity in Nigeria, we need not less than $10 billion annually for the next 10 to 20 years.
“But there are some foundational bottlenecks that we experienced in the past that need to be fixed for such investments to be realized,” he said.
According to the minister, the enactment of the new energy bill is one of the important steps taken by the current administration to address the challenges in the power sector.
The minister explained that the new legislation has liberalised and decentralised the power sector to enable all levels of government play their roles to give their citizens at sub-national levels electricity.
“This has given autonomy to more than 11 states, and more are still coming.
“They can now play roles in the power sector from generation to transmission to distribution and even metering.
“Secondly, we talk about infrastructure deficit, then we talk about fixing infrastructure deficit, which has piled up over the last 60 years due to lack of maintenance, lack of additional investment to revive our transmission grid,” he said.
The minister stressed the determination of the current administration to provide sustainable and reliable energy to critical national institutions.
GIK/APA