Recent reports’ advising the presidency says that the FG’s ambition for improving electricity suppliers are “remotely realistic”. It could be recalled that during the 2015 presidential electioneering campaigns, the APC in her manifesto pledged to increase power supplies from its current state of 3,600 megawatts (MW) to 20,000 MW within their four years in power and to 50,000 MW within ten years that would meet the demands of about 170 million Nigerians.
Chronic power shortages are one of the biggest constraints on investment and growth in Africa's largest economy (Nigeria). Fixing the problem was one of the key battlegrounds during campaigning ahead of a presidential election Muhammadu Buhari won in March 2015.
According to a 54-page report entitled “The Energy Blueprint” obtained by Reuters which said that; however reaching 20,000 MW by 2020 is “not even remotely realistic and setting unrealistic targets dilutes discipline”. A spokesman for Buhari said he had not seen the report, which is being produced for the government by power industry experts, but he said the government’s energy policy was still being put together.
The paper says Nigeria could produce 6,500 MW by 2020, which would mean matching India’s supply growth of 7 percent. This could rise to 8,500 MW if Nigeria could equal China’s 14 percent electricity output growth. Even these targets will require quick action on multiple reforms and billions of dollars of investment, it said.
In order for the Nigerian FG to attract all the investment required, it has to surmount some of the challenges such as; to free up credit to unlock gas supplies, reduce pipeline sabotage, end political interference in the private sector and install top management teams and to privatize the transmission network the report said.
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