Nigeria: Osinbajo - Dubious Contracts By Past Govts Crippled Power Supply

Vice-President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, Saturday alleged that dubious contracts awarded by past administrations have disrupted energy distribution in Nigeria.
Osinbajo, who made this allegation when he delivered the 10th Anniversary Lecture of Crescent University, Abeokuta, Ogun, tagged: 'The Nigerian Economy and the Future', said large-scale corrupt practices and dubious awards of contracts in Nigeria's power sector by past administrations, especially contracts on power transmission lines are responsible for inadequate and epileptic power supply in the country.

 

 

According to him, despite investments worth several billions of dollars in power generation and distribution over the years by government, businesses, Nigerians still suffer greatly on account of lack of power supply.
He therefore called for an overhaul of the sector in terms of generation and distribution if all efforts on power production must be achieved. Osinbajo pointed out that records showed that series of contracts were awarded in the power sector for several years and are still ongoing without tangible improvement.

          

He revealed that though Nigeria needs more than 10,000 megawatts (MW) to stabilise economic growth, the present capacity of power transmission lines could not distribute more than 5,000 MW since the improvement works on transmission lines had been stagnant over the years and should be improved upon if Nigeria must achieve tangible output from the sector.
According to him, "unfaithfulness in awards of contract and execution of contracts being awarded are the major challenges. Several contracts in that regards have been awarded several years back, but have not been completed.
"What is being produced now is less than 3,000 MW. Our transmission grid today can only transmit 5,000 MW and we need to improve on transmission capacity to transmit enough power needed to stabilise economy. That is why the private investors have to increase capital investment in power sector."

However, Osinbajo advocated that local investments should be encouraged to succeed in the country.
He also said Nigerians should also strive to engage competitive production to access the gains of global or international markets. Besides, he noted that the fertility rate of Nigerians were increasing by the year whereas the wealth of the country was not growing enough to match it.

The vice president said unless the nation's Gross Domestic Products(GPD) experiences double digits rise annually, the increasing population may be difficult to sustain with available resources.
According to him, over 100 million Nigerians live below the poverty line. He pointed out in a situation where the fertility rate is six percent, there is also the urgent need to nurture and spur the economy to grow by at least 10 per cent annually and enhance its capacity to cater for the population effectively.
Osinbajo identified Boko haram, corruption, tax evasion as among the factors constituting grave threat to the nation's economy.
He, however, hinted that some tough decisions would have to be taken to put the country back on the path of genuine growth and development in line with the All Progressives Party (APC) programmes while assuring that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led APC would encourage huge investment in the economy to make it competitive globally.