The Nigerian Ministry of Power said it’s was working to meet the December dateline for completion of the Zungeru Hydropower project in Niger State in the central part of the country.
Minister of Power Alh Abubakar Aliyu stated this while defending the ministry’s 2022 budget before the House of Representatives Committee on Power in Abuja.
Alh Abubakar Aliyu said the project when completed will add seven hundred megawatts of electricity to the National Grid thereby increasing access to power in line with the Sustainable Development Goals.
“The ministry has initiated a National Programme to provide alternative power supply to strategic Government’s formations for a sustainable power supply.
On the eleven-month Power outage in Borno State, the ministry is collaborating with the State Government to restore power in the State” the Minister explained.
While stressing the need for adequate funding to the sector for its criticality to the nation’s economic growth, the minister said the ministry is undergoing reforms that would improve power delivery in the country.
In a remark, the Chairman of the committee Alh Magaji Da’u Aliyu has reiterated the House commitment to supporting the power sector reform in line with the ninth Assembly Legislative Agenda.
“We will work with the ministry to ensure that the goal of achieving uninterrupted power supply is achieved.” Magaji Aliyu promised.
National Power Training Institute of Nigeria, NAPTIN and Nigerian Electricity Management Service Agency, NEMSA were two agencies of the Ministry that defended their 2022 Budget Proposal before the Committee.
While NAPTIN was meticulously drilled, NEMSA got approval without much stress.
On its 2021 Budget Performance, NEMSA received about 1.2 Billion Naira out of the N1,929,084,782.13 for personnel coast, about N325 Billion out of the N432,741,935 for overhead while N321,794,815.94 was received for Capital out of the N389,096,414:00 approved.
The Managing Director NEMSA, Engr Shuaibu Usman said 44.1% of Capital Fund Utilization was achieved and that a significant increase would be achieved before the end of the year.
Engr, Usman also explained that “In the Qi to Q3 of this year, NEMSA was able to generate 95% of our 2021 Revenue Target amounting to N983, 389,674.43.”
The Committee however pledged to support the agency towards achieving its mandate of enforcing technical standards and regulations, technical inspections, testing and certification of all categories of electrical installations, electrical meters and instruments.
Dominica Nwabufo
