The Federal Executive Council has approved the N2.7 billion as augmentation for building of houses for the resettlement of communities affected by the construction of Zungeru Hydro Electric Power Project in Niger State, Central Nigeria.
Minister of Power, Abubakar Aliyu revealed this at the end of Wednesday’s meeting of the council, chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari.
He said: “Today, I approached counsel to seek for approval of revised estimates total costs for the updated rates of building structures of compensation and resettlement of the communities affected by the construction of 700 megawatts Zungeru Hydroelectric power project in the total sum of N2,740,000,000 which will revise the subsisting amount from N19,640,000,000 to N22,380,000,000 and the council graciously approve the request.”
Shedding more light on the recent drop in the level of power generation in the country, the Minister said the major problem was that of gas.
“Regarding the drop of electricity, yes, you know, the supplier has so many players, gas, the cost that drop, issues of gas to some power plants they cannot switch on their plant, you will experience some drop once they switch on and the electricity will increase.
“There may be a drop due to the fault of the generator and the electricity would drop. It’s mostly generation. I’ve been watching since like yesterday evening, we had a generation of over 4000, around 4600 megawatts. And you know, we told you since 1st July, that we’ll be able to raise it up to 5000 when we activate the contract. And we have not been able to do so, due to some issues around gas contracts, gas to power, which we are trying to take care of. And we have gone very far with that, and I believe, it is for that reason that we’re able to reach up to 4600 as of yesterday.
“This morning, it dropped to 4100. So, this is what is happening, you will be experiencing this fluctuation due to all these issues around gas to power, because gas is not something that we control directly, you have to pay them, they will not give you gas until you pay. So, we are looking at ways to solve that issue,” he explained.
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