Paucity of funds stalls Nigeria’s nuclear power projects

The Federal Government projections to develop nuclear power to advance electricity generation is not looking likely to proceed as planned due paucity of funds owing to delay in passage of the 2017 budget.

Money is also supposed to be set aside for nuclear planning; meaning that the government’s aims to develop nuclear power are delayed observed Ayodele Oni, an energy expert.

Among planned projects that funds have been put aside for include a Nuclear Thermal Hydraulic Laboratory and Equipping of CERD, Ile-Ife. This will severely delay the nuclear agenda in Nigeria, Oni said.

The energy expert maintains that paucity of funds would greatly affect the power sector as there may be delays in completing transmission and pipeline projects, which will have the effect on private participants that have business plans reliant on these projects.

Further, agencies like NBET and TCN which are heavily dependent on government funding may be impacted by the delay.

Industry close watchers are of the opinion that the implications of the delay in budget passage will hurt the economy as power sector investors will hold back on any commitment of their resources until they have a clear policy direction of government indicated in the budget.

Even government contractors will be wary of deploying their resources to do government contracts until they are sure of government’s financial outlay for the sector in which they are executing contracts.

The entire private sector is also being affected by the budget delay as they do not yet know what will be government’s economic blueprint for the incoming year.

“For me, government’s concerns and priorities for 2016 budget should be the diversification of its revenue base through the non-oil sector focused funding to bridge the dwindling resources from the oil and gas sector.

The executive and legislative arms of Government should be bold enough to correct whatever gray areas that are holding the budget so that finance the many infrastructure deficits in electricity can be addressed.

Operators in the power sector urge the federal government to look at the challenges facing operators in the electricity sector and help them to solve it so that there can be better electricity generation, transmission and distribution which will concomitantly stimulate the economy particularly the small and medium enterprises.

“Government also need to assist the financial sector to make sure that interest rate on loans is in single digit and that banks lend to real sector by making provision of guarantees in some specific sectors that offer employment,” operators said.

KELECHI EWUZIE