… As Adelabu Cites Inconsistency In Policy, Project Execution As Bane Of Power Sector
African Development Bank (AfDB) has tasked the Federal government of Nigeria to articulate and publish a National Integrated Electricity Policy and Strategic Implementation Plan not later than a year Electricity Act 2023 became effective.
AfDB stressed this need ahead of its planned investment of $1 billion in Nigeria’s power sector.
Dr. Kevin K. Kariuki, Vice President
Power, Energy, Climate and Green Growth Complex, African Development Bank spoke while representing the President, Dr Akinwunmi Adesina, at the ongoing 8th Africa Energy Market Place 2024.
The theme is: Towards Nigeria’s sustainable energy future: Policy, Regulation and Investment – A policy Dialogue for the National Integrated Electricity Policy and Strategic Implementation Plan (NIEP-SIP). It was organised by the African Development Bank Group, Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa, Federal Ministry of Power and United Kingdom Nigeria Infrastructure Advisory Facility.
Dr. Kariuki explained that National Integrated Electricity Policy and Strategic Implementation Plan would help Nigeria in “unlocking the bottlenecks in the power sector and support in delivering policies that will set the sector on the trajectory for sustainable growth and development.Good policies attract sustainable investments.”
Kariuki’s position coincides with the Minister of power, Adebayo Adelabu, who observed that the bane of the power sector in Nigeria is inconsistency in policy implementation and projects execution.
He maintained that policy is more than what is needed to drive the power sector, adding that if there is a clear policy, stakeholders will be certain of the direction they are heading to.
He noted that frequent changes of Ministers of power doesn’t give room for policies initiated to be concretised and implemented, adding that everyone comes with his own policy leading to changes in policies and abandoning previous ones. He same goes with projects execution.
The AfDB Vice President who stressed that all hands must be on deck to realize 20GW believed to be the true power demand of over 200 million Nigerians, assured the banks commitment to supporting Nigeria’s power sector.
According to him, “At AfDB we put our money where our mouth is! As is clearly manifested by the fact we will be shortly seeking board approval for a 1 billion US dollars policy-based operation (PBO) with significant energy component aimed at supporting the ongoing power sector reforms triggered by the new Electricity Act.
“We will finance the policy recommendations to actualize the expected outcomes from the National Integrated Electricity Policy and Strategic Implementation Plan. Good policies attract sustainable investments.
“The said enabling environment will maximize the value of ongoing investments, including the USD 256.2 million Nigeria Transmission Expansion Project that entails the construction of 500km of transmission lines and four substations with capacity of over 1000MVA; and the USD 200 Million Nigeria Electrification Project, which will build 150 mini-grids.
“Moreover, we are financing a study for the Transmission Company of Nigeria to explore deployment of Battery Energy Storage Systems to enhance grid stability and facilitate greater uptake of renewable energy generation.
“Which brings me to generation. Nigeria is part of our flagship USD 20 Billion Desert to Power Initiative, which aims to generate 10,000 MW of solar power across 11 countries in the Sahel region to provide power to 250 million Africans. This portends great promise for increasing the proportion of renewable energy is Nigeria’s energy mix.”
On his part, Mr. Lamin Barrow, Director General, Nigeria Country Department, AfDB group, said in the Banks strategic objective to accelerate universal energy access through the “Light up and Power Africa” High-5, it is “supporting Nigeria’s power sector reforms. Our current portfolio in the power sector stands at $410 million in support of two projects.”
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