By Oscarline   Onwuemenyi
ABUJA – The Minister of Power, Prof. Bat Nnaji, has insisted that the Federal Government’s plan to attain about 5,000 megawatts of power generation in the country was still possible despite recent challenges within the sector.

Nnaji, who spoke with our correspondent on the sidelines of a meeting with a group of investors from the Califco Group, in Abuja, explained that the drawbacks being experienced in power generation in recent months was due to poor gas supply to power plants, adding that government was doing everything to address the issue.

He said, “We told Nigerians that by the end of this year and by the beginning of next year, we would generate 5,000MW of electricity. So far, so good; as at today (Friday), we are generating about 4,300MW of power, and we are confident that more megawatts would be added to the grid in the coming weeks, and we hope to keep improving on that.”

Officials of the Ministry of Power also hinted that an additional 600MW is expected within the next couple of weeks from the Shiroro Hydro Power Station, which has been undergoing rehabilitation in the past few months.

Furthermore, the government has said that more electricity is being expected from some of the Independent Power Producers, IPPs, as well as from major power stations, even as it is doing everything possible to ratchet up the generation capacity in the coming months.

Speaking on the proposal by Califco Group to invest over $2 billion in the nation’s power sector and plans to use special barges to develop about 500MW in a few months, Nnaji said, “I like their proposal to create power speedily, using some of the most modern technologies in the world. However, there are some grey points we have raised with regard to pricing and the public-private partnership proposal.

“We have made it clear that whoever is coming into the country to generate electric power must be ready to sell at a price that falls within our Multi-Year Tariff Order, MYTO band, which has been set by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC.

“Government has also stressed that it has no interest in developing power plants for now, rather it wants to act as an enabler for private investment by creating the necessary conditions and providing incentives to encourage private sector investment in power generation and distribution.”