Business
Nigeria needs 100,000MW electricity per day to power economy – Elumelu
BY KAZIE UKO
Chairman of Heirs Holdings, owners of United Bank for Africa (UBA) and Transcorp Power, Mr. Tony Elumelu, says Nigeria needs at least 100,000 MW of electricity a day to power the economy, but sadly is doing far much less.
Elumelu subsequently called for urgent reforms in the power sector to boost economic activities.
“Nigeria needs at least 100,000 MW of electricity a day to power the economy but today we operate less than 5,000 MW and we need to do more,” Elumelu said, adding, “Government, therefore, needs to create the enabling environment for businesses to thrive.”
He spoke Wednesday during an interview on The Morning Show, a programme of ARISE NEWS Channel, broadcast arm of ThisDay.
The Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) founder urged the federal government to invest more in electricity supply in order to create an avenue for innovation and economic development.
He listed the three components of power supply as generation, transmission and distribution and said Nigerians would do better in business and creativity if they had steady electricity supply.
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While decrying the situation where inadequate electricity supply was crippling innovation and the economy, Elumelu said: “Transcorp through Transcorp Power and Afam Power today in Nigeria own the highest generating capacity in Nigeria that can generate 2,000 MW of electricity per day. But unfortunately, we do less than 500MW at this point in time and the major constraint in this area is gas; then there is the issue of transmission and there is the issue of payment.
“For this to work well and for us to generate more, we need to have gas and our group has invested in oil and gas. And so, for us as a group, it is not necessarily for oil, it is because of gas because we want to be able to ensure that we have gas from our oil and gas production to convert to electricity.
“The acquisition we did recently, I’m happy to say, it is already supplying gas to our power plant. But going back to the subsidiary element, the issue of transmission, we need to make sure we stabilise our transmission for take-up.”
According to Elumelu who has his hold on critical sectors of the economy, including real estate, insurance and hospitality, Transcorp invested in the power sector to help Nigerians have access to electricity because businesses across all sectors of the economy like health, e-commerce, manufacturing, SMEs, among others, need power.
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“They cannot grow their businesses without adequate electricity. Nigerian and African youths are multi-talented, but they need a steady electricity supply to be creative and innovative,” he said.
The Afro-centrist investor said if the government improves access to electricity in Nigeria, the Nigerian youths will create the Nigerian version of Silicon Valley and the likes of Steve Job and Bill Gates, explaining that what is holding Nigerian youths to a large extent is the lack of adequate electricity.
He commended the CBN and its Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, for the support given in the area of metering.
He said to drive the economy, power generation has to be increased by fixing the gas supply to generating companies, adding that there was the need to make sure that the transmission lines are utilised to evacuate the power as well as ensure that power generated is taken by Discos and the end-users and they pay.
The business mogul said: “Power is still a critical sector; we need to invest and the stakeholders need to make sure that it works. And when it works, the country’s economic development becomes more real.
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“Every sector of our economy needs the power sector and I think we need to prioritise it more. But I commend efforts going on and also by making sure we privatise the remaining ones. The transmission lines need to be fixed and we need to make sure we improve the payment system.”
He advocated the privatisation of the entire value-chain of the power sector.
Elumelu stated: “The area of privatising the transmission lines, I think that ultimately, it should be privatised. What some of us have advocated is that the Gencos, the Discos and the entire power stakeholders should come together and have a deal with the federal government to take over the transmission lines and it would be in our self-interest to make sure it works.
“We have the transmission lines and if it doesn’t work when you are generating, there is no way you would evacuate your power. That sector is so critical and pivotal for the survival of the power sector. It is critical to improving access to electricity, and where it is now there is no problem but what is important to us is that we have expanded capacity.”
He stressed the need for the federal government to focus on diversifying the economy in a bid to increase the country’s forex inflow and reduce the dependence on oil revenue.