Fifteen Years After 6,000MW Electricity Target, Nigeria Still Generating Below Capacity-Nasarawa Gov
The Nasarawa State Governor, Engineer Abdullahi Sule, on Tuesday, expressed deep concern over Nigeria’s stagnant electricity generation 15 years after the Vision 20:2020 plans.
THE WHISTLER recalls that Vision 20: 2020 was muted in 2009 to boost power output to 50,000 megawatts (MW) by 2020, among other plans. However, after 15 years the country still struggles to generate above 6,000 MW.
Sule, who was part of the power committee in 2009 when Vision 20:2020 was launched, criticized the failure to meet these goals.
He highlighted that while the vision aimed to make Nigeria one of the top twenty economies globally, current power generation remains significantly below the target.
The Nasarawa governor spoke in Abuja at the 32 Engineering Assembly organized by the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN).
He emphasized the urgent need for Nigeria to transition from fossil fuels to cleaner energy sources, which the country has in abundance.
Sule called for increased focus on mining as a revenue source, noting that Nasarawa State contributes over N1bn to the federation account annually.
He said, “ “We know about the various power challenges in the country, in the year 2009 when Vision 20: 2020 was formed, I was in the power committee, and we were generating about 6,000MW of power, we committed and said that either from hydro, gas turbines and other areas of power production, we were going to be producing 50,000MW of power by the year 2020 and we will be the 20th economy, needless to say, today, we are 15 years later and we are still generating less than 6000 we used to generate.”
On his part, the Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Ahmed Dangiwa, said the standard set by COREN and the professional ethics it enforces are critical to ensuring the quality, safety, and resilience of housing and infrastructure projects across the nation.
Dangiwa commended the ongoing reforms and restructuring in COREN to effectively and efficiently implement the provisions of the COREN amended Act in monitoring and enforcing compliance in Engineering practice.
Also speaking, the President of COREN, Engineer Sadiq Abubakar said the Council had developed a technique to investigate the issues making buildings collapse thrive in the country.
“For the first time in this country, we are going to x-ray the sector that allows building collapse to thrive. We have developed a technique that is very comprehensive and will allow us to track who is doing what at what point.
“And who is not doing his job, an individual or organisation, so that we will be able to track and have very comprehensive recommendations on ways to mitigate these collapses.”
Fifteen Years After 6,000MW Electricity Target, Nigeria Still Generating Below Capacity-Nasarawa Gov is first published on The Whistler Newspaper
