•As NDPHC launches Light up Nigeria

Federal Government has assured investors in the country of the determination of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration to ensure adequate power supply across the country, especially in industrial clusters.

The Vice President, Senator Kashim Shettima, gave the assurance, yesterday, during the Agbara Business Roundtable held in Agbara, Ado-Odo-Ota Council of Ogun.

Shettima spoke just as the Managing Director of Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC), Chiedu Ugbo, said the company has launched a new bilateral power supply project, tagged Light up Nigeria programme, aimed at revolutionising power supply in Nigeria, providing businesses with reliable and sustainable energy solutions, targeting the supply of 200MW of electricity to commercial and industrial clusters.

Shettima said the country holds tremendous opportunities for not only investors but also the people.

The event was to launch an initiative to ensure dedicated power supply to industrial clusters across the country, starting with Agbara Industrial Estate.

Shettima said that it is embarrassing that the Agbara Cluster relies on other sources of power supply outside the national grid, adding that the Federal Government through the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) is committed to ensuring that clusters like Agbara benefit from a cheaper means of generating power in their various factories.

The Vice President, who is the Chairman of Board of Directors of NDPHC, promised that the Agbara Industrial Estate will have a steady power supply in the next four months.

He said: “I am here to reassure the business community that we mean business. I want to give you my word and my word is my bond. If you need 200 Megawatts, 300 Megawatts, we can give it to you.”

He charged the staff of NDPHC to double their efforts by ensuring the delivery of the Agbara Industrial Cluster power programme in three to four months.

In his remarks, the Ogun State Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun, said that without electricity, all infrastructures provided for the use of the people of the state and the country as a whole would be in vain.

He said: “We believe that such initiatives, like this, speak to ensuring the sustainability of competitive industrialization and one must not but salute this initiative.”

Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, represented by his Deputy, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat, said ensuring adequate power supply in the country is complex because of the attitudes of Nigerians.

“The issue of our power is complex and why it is complex is because of bad behaviour among all of us, the stakeholders, the distribution companies, generating companies.

Minister of Power, Mr Bayo Adelabu, on his part, said the event marked a pivotal moment in the collective endeavour to fortify one of the backbones of the industrial landscape of the country.
THE remarks by the Managing Director of the NDPHC came earlier in his opening remarks.

He said the Light Up Nigeria initiative was at the forefront of the Nigerian government’s efforts to improve the country’s power supply with an installed capacity of over 4,000MW industry pursuing bilateral power sales and other projects that ensure efficient and targeted power delivery to end-users.

He added that the initiative was a response to the need to ensure a consistent, reliable, cost-effective and improved country’s power supply of electricity from the company’s power plants to the extensive industrial and business clusters in Agbara and throughout Nigeria.