2019: Atiku promises to generate 20,000MW of electricity 

Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has promised to generate 20,000 Megawatts of electricity by 2025 if elected as President in the forthcoming General Election.

According to the policy document of the former Vice President, he promised to accelerate investment to double infrastructure stock in the country to approximately 50 percent of GDP by 2025 and 70 percent by 2030.

Delivering his third year progress report last week, Minister of Power Works and Housing, Babatubde Fashola, revealed that the present administration had power generation from 4,000MW to 7,000MW, transmission from 5,000 MW to 7,000 MW and distribution from 2,690 MW to 5,222 MW.

Atiku also planned to expand Nigeria’s export base by aspiring to export 10-15 percent of manufacturing output by 2030 and target 25 percent by 2035 and double refining capacity to 2 million barrels of crude daily, to export 50 percent of that capacity to ECOWAS member states.

In the same token, seeks to implement the Petroleum Industry Bill and ensure that the country refines over one million barrels of oil per day.

It would be recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari had declined assent to the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill passed by both chambers of the National Assembly.

The PDP Presidential candidate also proposed to raise foreign direct investment (FDI) to 2.5 percent of GDP.

Other items on the plan include: building 5,000 kilometres of roads, and 5,000 kilometres of modern railway.

“Working towards achieving the lowest corporate income tax rate in Africa; Strengthening the credit guarantee initiatives of Infra-Credit by substantially increasing its capital base; Lower transaction costs: capital

gains taxes etc,” the document indicated.

The policy document also seeks to improve spending efficiency of the Federal Government and drastically reduce the share of recurrent revenue in the budget from 70 percent to 35 percent by 2025.

On job creation, the former Number Two citizen promised to: “Launch a new, more efficient, cost-effective and sustainable national Entrepreneurship Development and Job Creation Programme.

“Target the creation of up to 3 million self-and wage-paying employment opportunities in the private sector annually.

“Target all categories of youth, including graduates, early school leavers as well as the massive numbers of uneducated youth who are currently not in schools, employment or training

“Create incubation centres, clusters and industrial/commercial hubs to provide a market place for MSMEs and SMPs.

“Champion the repositioning and streamlining the activities of the existing Federal and State Government job creation agencies”.