Nigeria’s Generation Capacity Has Staggered At 5000 Megawatts Since I Was Born – Femi Otedola

The state of the Nigerian power sector has again been berated by famous business man, Femi Otedola.

Otedola, who is Chairman, Board of Directors, Geregu Power Plc, has bemoaned how the generating capacity of the country has continue to linger at 5,000 megawatts.

According to him, the country’s power sector has been struggling to stay at 5,000 megawatts ever since he was born.

The business man, who has turned 60 years old already said it is rather unfortunate that a company like Dangote can build.power for cement and fertiliser and refinery, how much a whole nation.

Naija News gathered that Otedola made the observation on Friday at Friday at the “Closing Gong ceremony” of the Nigerian Exchange Limited, NGX in Lagos.

He bemoaned that the power has not improve since he was born, while highlighting generation as the major problem of the sector.

He noted that several generation plants built years ago by the government are still lying idle, stressing that it is unthinkable that Nigeria still struggles with 5,000 megawatts of generation capacity.

Otedola advanced that “Aliko Dangote, an individual, has built 2000 megawatts of power for cement, fertilizer plants and a refinery. And the country where I was born has only 5000 megawatts.

“So it’s appalling and disheartening that all the successive governments have failed in this regard, but I believe we are now at the stage where the power sector will get much attention and priority.

“We have new plants still sitting idle that the government built years ago, and the real problem is transmission; there is a need to look in this direction.”

He was however optimistic that the sector has a future, adding that once part of the problem of the sector which is leadership is solved, the sector has a bright future.

He urged stakeholders, including the federal government, to improve the transmission sector to boost the Nation’s power supply, and that the right hands at the helm of affairs would end the decades-old challenges