Says FG’s housing programme to create 900,000 jobs in 2017
By Clifford Ndujihe

BUT for the 800 containers carrying power equipment  that were trapped at our ports for over three to eight  years, Nigeria would have gone a long way in addressing her recurring  erratic power supply challenge, Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babtunde Raji Fashola, SAN, has said.

Noting that the President Muhammadu Buhari Administration has got the containers to be released, which in turn has revved up activities in the power industry, he said the country is now firmly on the path to improved and sustainable power supply.

Fashola spoke on, Friday night, at a dinner in Lagos to give account of the achievements of the Power, Works and Housing Ministry one year after he assumed office as minister.

He said he is talking about the trapped containers for the first time because the problem has been tackled. ‘’These containers were locked for three to eight years. Contractors, who took loans to import the equipment abandoned the containers when they could not get them cleared. We have solved the problem. Imagine what this did to the shipping business. We have put a good policy in place, the contractors have returned to work and we are getting more power now,’’ he said.

According to him, power is now oscillating between 3000 to 4010 MW. The maximum power generated is 5000MW while the current transmission capacity is 5900MW.

The minister, who lamented that non-maintenance of hydro power turbines for over three decades also affected power supply, said that the country generated an extra 320MW this year because of maintenance of turbines.

He specifically cited the example of Jebba turbines, which should haveTurn Around Maintenance, TAM, every six years but did not have any TAM since it was commissioned by General Buhari, as a military head of state in 1985, until this year after Buhari returned as a civilian president. Although, he regretted that the 2016 budget of N24 billion for power compared to N5billion budgeted in 2015, came late,  he said with efforts to complete a host of hydro, gas, wind and solar power projects across the country, the power situation will be better next year. According to him, the government will roll out its rural electrification programme in 2017, which ‘’will help us penetrate the rural areas that don’t have connectivity.’’

On housing, Fashola restated that the template for mass housing is in place and government has got land from 27 states adding that the programme will create jobs for over 900,000 skilled and unskilled people, when it takes off.

And since only made in Nigeria inputs and building materials will be used at the sites, he said the programme will have multiplier effects on the economy.

On Works, which covers bridges, roads, houses and public buildings, he said the Buhari Administration inherited 206 roads under contract awarded at N2.3 trillion with N700 billion paid. Thus, the government needed N1.53 trillion to complete the roads.