BPE sees gas supply challenge as threat to improved power supply

Nigeria’s lack of sufficient capacity to supply enough gas to power plants needs to be tackled to support the envisaged increased capacity as the private sector is about to take over power generation and distribution in the country, the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) has said.

The BPE noted that the bulk of electricity generated in the country was through gas-fired plants, regretting that at present the country does not have the capacity to supply enough gas to them.

Benjamin Dikki, director general, BPE, according to a statement signed by Chigbo Anichebe, the agency’s head of public communications, has called for strong incentives and support from the government to encourage the private sector investments in gas to boost power supply in the country.

While delivering a paper entitled ‘Power Privatisation: Objectives, Current Status, Prospects & Challenges’ at a Breakfast Meeting of the Lagos Business School on Wednesday, the DG who was represented by Ibrahim Babagana, acting director, electric power, said Nigeria was blessed with the largest reserves of natural gas in the world, but that necessary investments needed to be made to access the gas to produce power.

He announced that the successor companies carved out of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) would be handed over to their new owners as from October 1, 2013, stressing that with the power sector in private hands, Nigeria would benefit from increased power supply and boost in agricultural and industrial development, among other positive developments.

Dikki, however, appealed for understanding among Nigerians as the power sector reform would not bring about immediate changes. He said investments in the sector would take time to achieve results and that construction of new generation capacity would take two to five years to achieve most of the results envisaged.

By: FEMI ASU