Lagos State government has expressed resolve to partner with Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) to increase power supply in the state.
The state governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, gave this assurance while receiving officials of the company, who paid him a visit at Lagos House, Ikeja.
According to the governor, the need for collaboration became imperative in view of the importance and strategic role the company could play at ensuring energy provision for Lagos State.
Sanwo-Olu said there was the need for the state and NDPHC to design solutions that could take energy supply from the current position to a higher level, where businesses can flourish, markets can improve, wealth created, among others, even as he lamented the current situation which he described as unacceptable but can be improved upon.
“So all of us just have a role to play. We need to scale up this relationship very quickly, and whatever is required of us to support in all of those deliverables, we will give it to you.
“It is when we do this, that businesses can flourish, that markets can improve, that wealth can be created, that our GDP can improve and even the health, the quality of life will also improve,” the governor said.
Speaking further, the governor disclosed that the state government had engaged in some form of intervention and had invested in electricity generation with six independent projects, assuring that bottlenecks hindering NDPHC in the state would be addressed so as to ensure efficiency in power transmission.
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Managing Director of NDPHC, Chiedu Ugbo, earlier in his remark, appealed to the state government to intervene on the issue of Right of Way (RoW) as regards ongoing Oke-Aro Alausa Transmission Line project, which he said had become a huge challenge.
“One project that is currently ongoing that we have a huge challenge and we want His Excellency to assist us is the Oke-Aro Alausa Transmission Line; it is a 132 KVA line.
This was just as he said the company had somewhere around 4,000 megawatts of capacity in the grid operating, adding that: “Unfortunately, not all the 4,000 can go to end-users, because of systemic challenges.”
“We are very committed to finishing the project, but we have huge Right of Way issues. Not unexpected as Lagos is heavily built-up, but again, we have to provide infrastructure to serve the people. So this is one challenge we have,” Ugbo said.
The NDPHC chief recalled that the company was set up in 2005, saying it had been designed to develop 10 projects, of which eight were currently working and two under construction.
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