Millions without power in Nigeria

More than 120 million homes and businesses in Nigeria remained without power Minister of state for Power, Hajia Zainab Kuchi announced. That figure is being interpreted by Premium times as 75 % of the entire population.
According to her, only 40million Nigerians (about 25percent) of the country's population are currently enjoying electricity supply despite huge investment and promises.


"What it means is that there are about 120 million Nigerians that are without power and wish to buy power. We are looking forward into energy mix, what we are looking at are ways that will bring in so many other options and the only way we can power Nigeria which we have agreed, is to look forward to IPPs".


"There are also man made vandalism. Funding is part of the Nightmare we are facing. It was thought that by 2012 privatisation would have been completed so there was no provision for maintenance in the budget. So it became very difficult for even routine maintenance to be carried out".


"We keep on saying we shouldn't allow imperialism, yes we want foreign direct investment but we also want Nigerians to take ownership. If power sells on the street, power can sell better because everybody wants power 24/7,".

"There is even more money in power than in Petroleum, all you need is a power plant and you will make money by the day. The government has tried, we have all sorts of encouragement, we could go into coal, renewable energy so we need clusters of the windmill" she said. We've never had a stable power supply in Nigeria. The privitazation of electricity to multiple companies are yet to pay dividends.