In a bid to address the shortfall of electricity supply being experienced in the country, the Federal Government has developed short term intervention strategy to add 370mmcf/d gas supply that will push up power generation capacity to 5,000 megawatts within the next five months.
This step is under a new cross sectoral approach conceived by the Ministries of Petroleum Resources, Power, National Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, and other stakeholders to address inadequate electricity supply.
The new target of 5,000 MW is however a shortfall from the earlier projected 6000MW which Federal Government targets to achieve by December.
Addressing a joint press conference, yesterday, in Abuja, to unveil the new development, the Minister of Petroleum and Natural Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alision-Madueke, said the CBN would pay off N25 billion legacy debt owed to gas suppliers in order to restore confidence to stakeholders.
The minister said the government had resolved to find a lasting solution to abysmal power supply in the country.
Diezani was assisted by the Minister of Power, Professor Chinedu Nebo, Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, Managing Director of PPMC, Mr. David Ige, Chairman of NERC, Dr. Sam Amadi and the new Group Managing Director of NNPC, Joseph Dawha, as well as other stakeholders.
