In a bid to address the longstanding electricity challenges in Nigeria, the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, has revealed a novel bottom-up approach, News About Nigeria reports.
Speaking at a roundtable in Abuja on emerging issues, especially the re-enactment of the Electricity Act, 2023, Adelabu criticized the top-to-bottom strategy employed by predecessors and emphasized the need for political will and effective leadership.
The minister underscored that the country lacks not competent engineers but the political will to drive improvements in power supply.
He outlined a strategy focusing on customers, emphasizing that the generated power must reach end-users.
Adelabu declared the uselessness of continuous power generation without adequate supply to consumers, marking a departure from previous approaches.
Addressing the importance of liquidity, Adelabu stressed that revenue collection is crucial to financing activities across the power value chain.
While committing to the government’s determination to make the power sector work, he outlined plans to ramp up power generation, introduce new infrastructure, and support monitoring activities.
It was also gathered that President Bola Tinubu has reportedly pledged support for the power sector’s endeavours.
The Managing Director of the Nigerian Electricity Management Services Agency (NEMSA), Tukur Aliyu, highlighted the critical role of enforcing technical standards and regulations in managing the electricity industry’s growth.
Aliyu emphasized the importance of ensuring electrical installations meet required standards for safe, reliable, and sustainable electricity supply.
The roundtable sought to bridge knowledge gaps among stakeholders, sensitizing legislators and judicial officers on NEMSA’s enforcement role and the legal framework for technical standards and regulations in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry.
