NIGERIA – The minister of power, works and housing, Babatunde Fashola, says the country is currently generating 7,000 megawatts of electricity and distributing 5,222 megawatts.
Fashola said this on Friday while speaking at a retreat for top directors, heads of units and chief executives of agencies and parastatals in his ministry.
The minister said as of three years ago, power generation was a problem as the country was 2,690 megawatts of electricity on the average.
“Three years ago, the story was that power generation was the main problem of Nigeria. The story was that the distribution companies were complaining that they did not have enough energy to distribute to Nigerians,” he said.
“We were distributing averagely 2,690 megawatts of electricity to Nigerians, but today, that story has changed, distribution has risen to 5,222 megawatts, an all-time national high.
“Transmission has reached 7,000 while generation has reached 7,000. The problem has not finished but all we can say is that we have made progress.”
The minister said the federal government is constructing roads in all the 36 states of the federation some of which are being done through collaborative efforts.
He said the government has spent over N300 billion on roads construction since coming to power three years ago.
“Before this administration, there was no housing policy but now we have one,” Fashola said.
On his part, Louis Edozien, permanent secretary of the ministry of power, said the retreat was put in place to appraise the performance of the ministry in the past 90 days.
