Ahead of the Yuletide, the minister of state for Power, Mr Goddy Jedy-Agba has assured Nigerians of uninterrupted power supply.
Agba, who spoke yesterday during a visit to the Azura Power Plant, near Benin, Edo State, said that the power sector has improved tremendously since the coming of the present administration.
The minister promised to personally be on duty during the Yuletide to ensure that those saddled with the responsibility of generating and distributing power are up to their responsibility in this Yuletide season.
“The sector is improving and it is better than before. You can see the union shutdown in less than for 24 hours last week and it took us less than 18 hours to get them back to work after negotiation.
“Power for me is stabilising. I am sure will we do better. Government, Discos and all the stakeholders in the power sector are putting heads together to ensure that.
“Christmas, Nigerians will have light all through. I will be on duty on Christmas day and you can see me going round all the power plants. Even on Christmas Day, I will go out to visit the power plants. I assured you there will be power”, he said.
The Honourable commended the Managing Director of Azura, Edu Okeke for living up to its billing, adding that the Azura is a pride of the nation and that he is proud to be a part of the project.
ALSO READ: I want to give love a chance again in 2020 ― Juliet Ibrahim
“I am very impressed and I want to be part of this team. I just told the MD that this is the most magnificent plant I have seen apart from the one I saw in USA ten or fifteen years ago but this is very good for Africa and it is very good for Nigeria”, he said.
The minister called for more private investment in the power sector for optimum power supply in the country.
“The federal government has privatized this thing called power, you should invest, I should invest, everybody should invest to make this thing work.
” You put money into something, you expect to make a profit. No capitalist invest in social welfare. So if you invest in it, you put more money to make it grow so you can reap your money and if you do not put in money, you do not make money. So is all commercialized. It is a commercial exercise”, he added.
The Managing Director, Azura Power Plant Plc, Mr Edu Okeke remarked that the company has gone from being such a small Nigeria power company to a Pan Africa company.
Okeke, however, ruled out going to the capital market, as the majority of shareholders in the company is called Actis, a UK private equity firm which has more than $10 billion.
He added that Actis as private equity the shareholders are made up of a lot of pension funds that manage about $2trillion.
He said: “We need more Azura and more power project like this to get us from where we are to where we want to be.”
and then