It’s Really Sad Power Sector Is In Crisis – Minister

The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, has said it is really sad that the nation’s power sector is in serious crisis.

Adelabu stated this while speaking during a press briefing in Abuja on Monday, Naija News reports.

He said the last three weeks had been difficult for the country because Nigerians have been contending with frequent power cuts.

The minister, however, stated that the government is trying its best to bring normalcy to the power crisis and urged Nigerians to exercise patience to fix the problem from its root cause.

He said: “We are doing everything possible to make sure the situation reverses in no time. There is a crisis and the crises must be arrested. What we asked from Nigerians is to exercise a little patience to retain their trust and confidence in us that we can do this.

“Very soon, you will start singing our praises. When they accuse us now, when there is no power, it is very understandable because their complaints are legitimate.”

The minister lamented the poor performance exhibited by electricity distribution companies, promising that sanctions would be meted out to underperforming DisCos.

He disclosed that the ministry is making plans to balkanise the coverage area of some of the DisCos to enable communities not served to be taken over by other companies.

Adelabu added that the government has launched schemes to accelerate meter acquisition by providing 2 million meters annually.

He said: “We want to do this so that in four to five years, the metering gap will disappear or be significantly reduced. There is a Presidential Metering Initiative.

“We have a seed fund of N75bn to start working and we are going to add some debt injection from the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) to complement the seed fund. There is a possibility of increasing the seed fund to N100bn.”