The Minister of Power, Prof. Barth Nnaji, has said that investments of up to $100 billion? were needed for the country to produce, transmit and distribute 40,000MW of electricity by year 2020.
The minister who was speaking on a topic entitled: ‘Infrastructural Development as Imperative for National Growth,’ recently at the 2012 Aret Adams’s Annual Lecture Series held at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA),Lagos, said the provision of infrastructure should not, in any circumstance, be seen as an end in itself, but as a means to an end as it was primarily? to stimulate socioe-economic activity.
According to Nnaji: “This quantum of power is exactly the figure generated in South Africa, the world’s 20th biggest economy. Yet, since 2008, this quantum has proved insufficient as South Africa has been experiencing power outages and load shedding. South Africa’s population is 47million, while Nigeria’s is 167million. Still, to produce, transmit and distribute 40,000MW by 2020, investments of up to $100billion are needed.”
While noting that generation alone accounted for 35 per cent of the sum, he said “this huge capital outlay is not available to the Nigerian government which faces severe competing needs in agriculture, education, health, etc, but the money is available in international capital markets.”
He noted that if the liberalisatioin of the telecommunications sector, a smaller sector than electricity, could unleash an unprecedented revolution in Nigeria.