FG to generate 7,000mw power soon —Aide

Mr Laolu Akande, the Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President on Media and Publicity, on Sunday, gave the assurance that the Federal Government would soon generate 7,000 megawatts of power.

Akande said this when he appeared on the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum in Abuja, adding that government was working assiduously to step up power generation from 5,000 mw to 7,000 mw.

He said that the country began to experience low electricity supply due to pipeline vandalism and the bombings in the Niger Delta region.

“When the administration came in, as a matter of fact, we were doing less than 300mw.

“So we were not doing 5,000mw when we came in; actually, we were the ones that took it to 5,000mw for the first time in the history of this country.

“In February, we took it to 5,000mw but unfortunately it was that same February that the bombing of the oil pipelines started, so it brought down the output.

“So, what is being done now is what is called incremental power to try to see how we can in different ways increase the output in power.

“So a lot of transmission facilities and infrastructure for power are being rejuvenated, trying to tap more from gas.

“You are going to be seeing more of gas-to-power, government is rejuvenating quite a number of them,” he said.

The presidential aide added that the Federal Government had signed memorandum of understanding with companies that would supply gas, adding that the development would ultimately increase the output.

“We are doing what is called ‘incremental power’ to bring up the megawatt output, we believed that very soon we will be doing about 7,000mw as power is critical to economic growth of country,” he said.