The Nigerian government said the country needs $10 billion in investment in the power within five to ten years to achieve a 24-hour electricity supply.
The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, disclosed this when the Director General of the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), Dr Jobson Ewalefoh, paid him a visit in Abuja on Wednesday.
According to him, the Nigerian government alone cannot solve the backlog of challenges facing the country’s power sector, which is why it is calling for private partnerships.
“Government cannot do it alone; this is why we have to look for organised private sector funding while still retaining government interest and ownership.
On his part, Ewalefoh stressed that revamping the country requires planning, collaboration and private-sector investments.
“Revamping the power sector requires planning; it involves investments, and it takes time. So, we need to collaborate to solve the issues in this sector.
“The investment required in the power sector is very huge, and the government cannot fund it alone, so we have to leverage the financing capacity of the private sector. That is why the ICRC was set up to regulate this leverage,” he said.
This comes as Nigeria grapples with the problems of incessant grid collapse, high electricity costs, metering gap and access to power supply.
DAILY POST reports that in the past months, Nigeria’s national grid had collapsed at least twelve times, which plunged the country into darkness.
On Tuesday, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, blamed corruption by contractors in Nigeria’s power sector for the incessant National Grid collapse.
