Power: FG rakes in N23bn monthly at 4,000MW

Despite Nigeria’s power generation capacity of below 4,000 megawatts, the Federal Government makes about N23bn as revenue from the sector on a monthly basis.

Nigeria’s power generation as at Wednesday stood at about 3,800MW, according to information from the Federal Ministry of Power.
The Chairman, Presidential Task Force on Power, Mr. Beks Dagogo-Jack, said the amount generated from the sector monthly would have been enough to settle the claims of labour within 15 months after privatisation.
He spoke at a roundtable meeting for chief executives organised by the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board in Abuja on Thursday.
Dagogo-Jack stated the total revenue that came into government coffers from the privatisation of the successor companies of the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria was about N416bn, adding that 90 per cent of the sum was used to pay labour as severance.

He said, “As we speak today our monthly invoice profile in the market at 4,000MW is in the order of N23bn. This means that what we paid labour can be seen as a 15 months cost.
“Meanwhile, anybody who was narrow minded as to why we paid labour that huge sum would argue about the money while Nigerians are waiting to move forward. By this, I’m underlining the power of political will and wisdom.
“So when we realise that on a monthly basis our invoice at the current energy level is in the order of N23bn, it means that in about 12 to 13 months, the market would have returned back that amount of money. Therefore there is no need to stay and fight labour over that amount of money when there is darkness in the country.”
The PTFP boss noted that the electricity reform process happened because of the quality of political will that was behind it.
Still at the meeting, the Managing Director, Sovereign Wealth Fund, Mr. Uche Orji, stated that the fund was set to invest the $200m earmarked to it by the Federal Government to improve gas-to-power infrastructure in Nigeria.
He said, “We’ve just finished some of the agreements terms on how to receive the money and hopefully we will start deploying it within the next couple of months.
“Nigeria has the capacity to generate enough power today but there isn’t adequate gas. Now to improve this we can invest in pipelines, gas processing, captive power plants and many others.”
On why the meeting was called, the Executive Secretary, NCDMB, Mr. Ernest Nwapa, said the programme provided a platform for agencies of government to share their success stories from Nigerian content implementation over the last four years.
He said the CEOs would do this by giving detailed description of the impact which their achievements had on other sectors of the economy.