Finance Minister advocates more funding in power sector
CHIGOZIE AMADI
The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Mr Wale Edun , declared in Abuja on Monday that liquidity is the major solution required by the troubled power sector .
This is as the Managing Director of Niger Delta Power Holding Company ( NDPHC) , Mr Chiedu Ugbo informed the Senate Committee on Power that the Calabar Power Generation Company under its ownership , is the best performing power plant in the country .
The Minister stressed the need for liquidity into the power sector in his submission to the committee investigating the controversial Make up Gas ( MUG) Reprocessing Deal Involving the Ministry of Finance , NDPHC, Calabar Generation Company Limited and ACUGAS Limited.
The Minister who made the submission through his Special Assistant , Mallam Dahiru Moyi , said the agreements on Gas supply between NPDHC and ACUGAS Limited was inherited by former President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015 since it was signed in 2011 during President Goodluck Jonathan ‘s administration .
According to him , ” just as the Ministry of Justice was not aware of the contract agreement , the Ministry of Finance was also not part of it from the beginning but since government is a continuum , Ministry of Finance later came into it for the purpose of facilitating the required liquidity .
” The issues on ground about contracts agreements being investigated by the Senate Committee on Power , is not about restructuring but providing the required liquidity which the Ministry of Finance is doing through collaboration with the Nigerian Liquified Natural Gas ( NLNG) .
” Since NLNG pays Gas in Dollars , the Ministry is collaborating with it for practical solution of bringing liquidity into the age long contract agreement through Deed of Transfer .
” Make Up Gas ( MUG) belongs to Calabar , Calabar belongs to NDPHC and NDPHC belongs to Federal and State governments with Federal Government having 52.68%”, he said.
In his own submission before the committee , the Managing Director of NDPHC , Chiedu Ugbo , said the company as a result of the Gas supply agreement with ACUGAS Limited , is taking Gas from three out of five units and generating power from Calabar plant to the National Grid which according to him, is the best power plant in the entire country .
He said NDPHC went out of its way to construct 80 kilometres gas pipeline for utilization of MUG in Calabar and Alaoji power plants .
He however lamented that problems relating to systemic transition, frequency and voltage issues , have not made the firm to achieve the desired results .
In his remarks , the Chairman of the Committee , Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe ( APGA Abia South) , thanked the stakeholders for giving the committee clarity on the issue but added that is still an on going investigation .
