The Minister of Power, Works and Housing,
Babatunde Raji Fashola, is set to revolutionize the country’s infrastructure.
The minister, who spoke yesterday in Abuja while unveiling
his agenda for the three sectors under his
purview, noted that a large
percentage of the difference in the proposed 2016 budget would go to capital
projects.
On the electricity sector, Fashola called for patience from
Nigerians, regretting the reforms proposed in the Nigeria Electricity Power
Sector Reform (EPSR) Act did not take off till November 2013, eight years after
the enabling law came into being.
Highlighting the problems in the sector, Fashola said:
“There are a number of issues that beset our gas sector such as the
environmental issue and the availability of gas infrastructure such as
pipelines and the matter of pricing which are all the responsibility of other
ministries.
“Subject to budgetary approvals and financing, the Ministry
of Petroleum indicates its ability to build certain critical pipelines to transport
gas to the power plants that will add another 2,000 mw to our stock of power
within 12-15 months.
“Of course the appropriate pricing of gas and its impact on
tariff is another matter entirely. If the local market was offering $1.30 per
unit of gas, which has been reviewed recently to $3:30, and the international
market is offering about $4:00 and above, your guess is as good as mine where
supply will be available and where it will be short.
“For emphasis and clarity, let me state that the previous
administration had actually approved the tariff in January 2015, but did not
fully implement it.”
He also announced that the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory
Commission (NERC) and the electricity distribution companies had been mandated
to meet and come up with what he described as ‘fair market tariff’.
In the meantime, he appealed to Nigerians over the upcoming
electricity tariff increase, stressing that a good tariff system would
guarantee good electricity supply.
The former governor of Lagos State, however, insisted that
the Discos must commit to certain conditions in the area of providing meters,
transformers, expansion of network, among others, in line with the proposed new
tariff order.
He was also emphatic that priority would henceforth be given
to local meter and transformer manufacturers in procuring the items for the
sector.
On whether a cartel of generator importers is hindering the
growth of the sector, he said: “There is no evidence that generator dealers are
a cartel in the power sector. They have been filling a gap and I have no doubts
that they have the capacity to adapt.”
He stressed the key targets in the electricity sector:
“Apart from these, there is a 10MW wind energy project in Katsina nearing
completion, a 215MW plant in Kaduna and the 3,050 MW plant in Manbilla, Taraba
State all of which need to be completed.
“Our first priority is to get contractors to finish ongoing
transmission contracts to enable us to transport the electricity being
generated to the Discos to distribute.
“Our second priority is to ask the governors to help us
identify and enumerate their most populous industrial and commercial clusters
where manufacturing, fabrication, welding and related productive work is going
on, especially by small businesses and to see how we can use the existing legal
framework to attract embedded power supply to these people who must be ready to
pay for the power.”
Speaking further on efforts to boost transmission, he added:
“We have identified a total of 142 projects of which 45 are at 50% level of
completion and about 22 can be completed within a year.”
He noted that about N40 billion would be needed to complete
over 22 major transmission companies across the country, admitting however,
that the existing budgets for TCN could hardly do much.
Fashola also said efforts were ongoing to amicably resolve
the lingering impasse between Geometric Power and the new owners of the Enugu
Electricity Distribution Companies over the 144 Aba Independent Power Plant
project as the matter had been brought to the attention of President Muhammadu
Buhari.
In the Works sector, Fashola said work on the Second Niger
Bridge had resumed in earnest while stressing that immediate attention would be
on about 200 road contracts that were abandoned because of funds constraints.
His words: “Records available from previous budgets show
that the last time Nigeria budgeted over N200 billion in a year for roads was
in 2002.
It seems that as our income from oil increased, our spending
on roads decreased.
“Our ability to achieve connectivity of roads depends on
capital spending in 2016 to pay contractors and get them back to work.”
He went on: “Our short-term strategy will be to start with
roads that have made some progress and can be quickly completed to facilitate
connectivity, prioritising the roads that connect states and those that bear
the heaviest traffic.
“As at May 2015, many contractors have stopped work because
of payment, and many fathers and wives employed by them have been laid off as a
result.”
On workers laid off by construction companies, he stressed:
“Some of the numbers from only four companies that were sampled, suggest that
at least 5,150 workers have been laid off as at March 11, 2015; and there are
at least 200 contracts pending, on the basis of one company per contract.
“If each contractor has only 100 employees at each of the
200 contract sites, it means at least that 20,000 people who lost their jobs
can return to work if the right budget is put in place and funded for
contractors to get paid.
“The possibility to return those who have just lost their
jobs back to work is the kind of change that we expect to see by this
short-term strategy.”
He added: “In order to make the roads safer, we intend to
re-claim the full width and setback of all federal roads, representing 16% and
about 36,000km of Nigeria’s road network by asking all those who are infringing
on our highways, whether by parking, trading, or erection of any inappropriate
structures to immediately remove, relocate or dismantle such things voluntarily.
This will be the biggest contribution that citizens can offer our country as
proof that we all want things to change for the better.
“For clarity, it is important to say that although the state
governments own 18% of the total road network of about 200,000km, while the
local governments own the balance of 66%, the 16% owned by the Federal
Government carries an estimated 70% of the total traffic because of their
length, width and inter-state connectivity.”
On government’s plans for the housing sector, he drew
attention to its resolve to adopt the Lagos Home Ownership Mortgage Scheme
(HOMS) model.
Fashola said: “If we complete our ongoing projects, and we
get land from the governors in all states and the Federal Capital Territory
(FCT) to start what we know, using the LagosHoms model, we should start 40
blocks of housing in each state and FCT.
“We expect state governors to play a critical role here, by
providing land of between 5-10 hectares for a start, with title documents, and
access roads or in lieu of access roads, a commitment that they will build the
access roads by the time the houses are completed.
“We see this leading
to potential delivery of 12 flats per block and 480 flats per state, and 17,760
flats nationwide, for a start.”
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