Nigeria needs 35,000 mega watts of electricity by 2020

ABUJA -– The National Planning Commission says Nigeria needs an electricity generation capacity of not less than 35,000 mega watts by the year 2020.

This was contained in the 2010 Monitoring, Performance and Evaluation Report for Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) made available  in Abuja on Thursday.

“Nigeria lags significantly behind in access, quality and availability of public electricity supply.

“The present generating capacity of 3,800 mega watts as at first quarter of 2011 is not enough to drive the economy and also is grossly inadequate for a population of about 150 million.

“This threatens the actualisation of the socio-economic goals of alleviating poverty and of jobs and wealth creation.

“South Africa has 40,000 mega watts with population of just 50 million and Brazil has 100,000 mega watts with a population of 192 million,’’ the commission said in the report.

The report noted that the Vision 20:2020 strategic objective for the power sector was to efficiently deliver sustainable, adequate, qualitative, reliable and affordable power in a deregulated market while optimising the on-and-off energy mix.

“It is expected that the electricity supply industry will be private sector-led with the government providing the necessary, appropriate, legal and regulatory environment.

“In order to achieve the Vision 20:2020, Nigeria will need an electricity generation capacity of about 35,000 mega watts by 2020,’’ it said.

It said that in the medium term, the goal of the first national implementation plan was to generate, transmit and distribute 16,000 mega watts of electricity by 2013.

“Access to electricity is expected to increase from the current 40 per cent to 50 per cent, while per capita consumption will increase from the current 125 kilo watts to 500 kilo watts.

“This is expected to be achieved through significant investment in rural electrification programmes that will facilitate the expansion of transmission and distribution lines to majority of rural Nigeria,’’ the report added.

The commission stressed the need to increase power generation by rehabilitating existing PHCN power plants and completion of some on-going Independent Power Producers (IPPs) projects.

The commission said that the completion of National Integrated Power Projects, large hydro plants, IPPs, and renewable power plants as well as granting of incentives to new entrants to power generation would increase power generation to 35,000 mega watts by 2020.

The report was published to monitor and evaluate performances of all levels of government.

It also serves as a tool to examine progress and solve implementation problems as well as provide a record of implementation with factual details on inputs, outputs and outcomes.

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(NAN)