The Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu has disclosed that about N6 trillion revenue is required annually to ensure steady power supply in Nigeria.
Adelabu who disclosed this yesterday while speaking at the ongoing Nigerian Oil and Gas Energy Week in Abuja said significant amount of investment is needed to improve power generation and distribution in the country.
He pointed out the the industry currently generates about N1 trillion annually in revenue, explaining that an additional N5 trillion in revenue would stabilise power supply in the country.
He pointed out the industry needs to work harder to attract the N16 trillion spent annually by individuals and entities in self generation of power in the country.
“The requirement to have a stable, uninterrupted and functional electricity supply in Nigeria requires huge funds that the government and its budgets cannot afford to fund it alone”.
He argued that the power industry is bigger than the telecommunications industry, pointing out that “if you know how much our people spend in buying diesel, petrol, generators and serving them in a year. The last study we had in 2023, a total spend of N16.5 trillion in self generation.
“The revenue for the entire industry, the grid and the formal power sector was just N1 trillion for 2023”, he added.
Despite the $1.3 billion debt owed to gas suppliers, the Minister called on oul and gas to supply more gas to the sector.
“The domestic gas-power market accounts for 60 percent (approx. 700 MMSCF Daily) of the total domestic gas supply. This gas quantity currently sustains Nigeria’s 4GW average grid generation capacity.
“In line with the Nigeria Energy Transition Plan vision 30:30, which seeks to achieve 30GW by the year 2030, our energy mix is projected to be 70% (or 21GW) thermal source (most likely gas considering the country’s gas potential) and 30per cent (or 9GW) renewable source.
“The power sector would require over five times what the industry currently utilises from the domestic gas market to achieve our 70% thermal energy target with gas-powered generation. Additional investments would be needed to increase the country’s gas production to achieve this level of gas supply to the power sector without compromising the export obligations. To this end, I call on the investors here today to strongly consider the investment in the further development of gas production in the country, especially our abundant unexploited Non-Associated Gas reserves”, he added.