The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu has reiterated his commitment to power stability in Nigeria.
According to him, work is ongoing to improve the country’s power infrastructure and tackle the challenges that have hindered power delivery.
He also spoke on the N8 billion allocation in the 2025 budget of the Ministry of Power.
He said the funds are not for sensitizing Nigerians to pay electricity bills as speculated in some quarters. Rather the money is for advocacy against vandalism, public education and deploying technology to protect critical power infrastructure.
The minister described the social media reports as baseless and misleading.
He said the ministry’s main focus is on vandalism which has disrupted power supply in several parts of the country.
In a statement released by Bolaji Tunji, Special Adviser on Strategic Communications and Media Relations, Adelabu expressed worry over the increasing acts of sabotage on power infrastructure.
He said such acts undermine the government’s effort to deliver electricity.
The minister cited the destruction of underground cables in Abuja which left parts of the city in darkness as example of the urgency to tackle vandalism.
To tackle this, Adelabu said a nationwide advocacy campaign will cover all 774 local governments and 36 states including the Federal Capital Territory. This will involve town hall meetings, community leaders and stakeholders, and massive media engagement through radio, television, newspapers, social media and billboards.
The minister said the advocacy will educate Nigerians on the consequences of vandalism and encourage communities to take ownership of power infrastructure.
He also said the campaign will include Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives in host communities and local hunters and security personnel will be involved to protect installations.
He noted that the cost of repairing vandalized power infrastructure is huge.
Adelabu mentioned that the Transmission Company of Nigeria spent N9 billion to repair towers and lines destroyed by terrorists on the Shiroro-Mando-Kaduna line.
On grid stability, Adelabu mentioned the Siemens project which is 95% complete in the first phase. He said the first phase has eight (8) power transformers and five (5) mobile substations across different states. The second phase will have 14 brownfield substations and 20 greenfield substations.
The SCADA system is being upgraded to manage the grid better and prevent grid collapse.
Adelabu said since they came into office, power generation has increased by over 1000mw, peaking at 5528mw (3 years high) compared to the 4000mw they met when they came in.
The minister reiterated the government’s position that electricity will be a right for all Nigerians as promised by President Bola Tinubu.
He said Nigeria must resolve these challenges to have efficient, reliable and uninterrupted power and to position Nigeria in the global energy space.