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Nick Agule: Nigeria Similar To Brazil In Population, But Generates 5,000 MW compared to 150,000 MW

Energy expert, Nick Agule has said though Nigeria shares similar population to Brazil, it generates 5000MW compared to 150,000MW

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Nick Agule, an Energy expert, has said the current 5,000 MW in Nigeria’s power supply is not sufficient as the country clearly needs more megawatts, citing the contrast between Nigeria and Brazil in power generation despite similar population size.

Speaking in an interview with ARISE NEWS on Tuesday, he said South Africa, Brazil and Qatar generate 55,000, 150,000 and 8,000 megawatts respectively. 

“South Africa, it’s an African nation, there are 65 million people, their energy electricity supply is about 55,000 megawatts, which is 11 times more than what we’re talking about in Nigeria.

“Then we can go over to Brazil, I choose Brazil because it’s like our mate, and they also have 200 million people like us. They are supplying 150,000 megawatts, which if you look at the 5,000 we’re talking about then it’s nothing to really celebrate about. Then we can cross over to Qatar.”

‘I’m selecting Qatar because Qatar is a gas nation like Nigeria, and Qatar has a population of about 3 million people. They are supplying 8,000 megawatts of electricity, so you can see that 3 million people are enjoying more electricity than Nigeria’s 200 million people.”

He highlighted during Goodluck Jonathan’s administration the privatization of power supply generation and distribution, pointing out the urgency to privatize the transmission in the power sector value chain.

He explained, “I’m from Benue, so let me use agriculture, which a lot of people may connect with. Let’s say you want to privatize the agricultural value chain. So you privatize the farms, and then you privatize the markets. But you did not do anything about the vehicles that will carry the food produced in the farms to the markets. What have you done? You’ve done nothing. Why? Because the people who are to produce the food can’t produce food because there are no vehicles to carry the food to the market. And then the people in the market are waiting for food to come, and food is not coming. And that is what the Goodluck General Administration did. So that is the first big issue with electricity supply. Transmission underfunded.”

However, he said distribution licenses are awarded to unqualified entities, without the capital, expertise or technology and the result is electricity theft.

According to him, “It’s a big issue, but you solve electricity theft with money. You need to invest to modernize the distribution. For instance, if you go elsewhere, electricity cables are no longer flying all over, above the ground.

“They are buried deep in the ground where the consumers will not have any ability to be able to go and steal that electricity. And the same thing, you discover that if you don’t have transformers, you don’t have metres, you don’t have the cables and all of that installed, then you are not going to be able to distribute electricity. And the problem is that the distribution is the biggest culprit because they are the ones who are expected to take money from consumers.”

“And because they are not taking money from the consumers, that is why government is now subsidising electricity. And that is what has caused this theft.”

 He suggested, the government addresses transmission immediately. “So my advice to the Power Minister and President Tinubu, who is his boss, is that it’s not tariff that is going to solve these things. Structurally, deal with transmission. 

“So that transmission can expand capacity, and I believe that distribution will be able to put more into transmission because distribution licences were awarded to the Otedolas and the Elumelu. I think they have the cash to put in.”

He added, “Look, as a citizen of Nigeria, I paid my money to the Corporate Affairs Commission, and I got 11 documents for all the distribution companies here with me. All of them. And you will be surprised that here, I have five distribution companies, their share capital is 10 million naira. 10 million naira is just about $5,000 to $6,000. So how could President Jonathan have awarded licences to the company whose share capital is just $6,000 to distribute electricity to four states?”

“And then we have this other group here. This group has distribution companies. Two of them have share capital of 5 million naira. And then one has 100 million, then 200 million, and then 500 million. Put together, the share capital of the 11 distribution companies in Nigeria is less than 1 billion naira, which is around about $500,000.”

Nick Agule encourages the president to right the wrongs of the current distribution companies, bring them together and speak with them. “Put these 11 groups together and say, guys, you have broken your promises in terms of the licences we issued you. You were supposed to invest money. You didn’t invest money.

“And you want to live off 5,000 megawatts. Because there’s something I would tell Nigeria that would stop them. In 2013, when we privatized, we had one NEPA. And that NEPA was giving us 6,000 to 7,000 megawatts of electricity. As of today, we have 46 different companies in the power sector. And power supply has rather crashed from 6,000 to 7,000 to 5,000. And what is the impact of that? All of that cost is what the Minister for Power wants us to pay. So, in comparison, we are running out of time.”

BOLUWATIFE OYANIYI

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