By Gabriel Enogholase

BENIN—Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State has said the decision to create the Ministry of Energy and Electricity from the Ministry of Energy and Water Resources was to enable the new ministry execute electricity projects in the state.

Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki

The governor said: “The need to separate the Ministry of Energy and Electricity from the Ministry of Energy and Water Resources is because we have a project called Electrify Edo, which will be executed under the new ministry.

“Electricity has been privatised and we need to domesticate it in the state.”

The governor explained that the state government will place emphasis on completing ongoing projects, saying: “We want to close all the projects we started.”

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The new ministry is headed by Mr Akin Agbaje, one of the new commissioners appointed by the governor.

The state is home to Edo-Azura Power Plant, which feeds the national grid as well as the CCTEC Ossiomo Power Plant, which is expected to provide embedded power supply to government buildings, hospitals, streets on the Sapele Road axis of Benin City, among others.

It is expected that with the coming on stream of the Ossiomo power plant, there will be need to regulate the local electricity market, which the ministry would be charged to execute.

Vanguard