16-24 Hours Daily Power Supply Will Happen 'Soon' - Minister

The dream of all Nigerians to have uninterrupted power supply will
soon be attained, the Federal Government assures. According to the
Minister of power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo, some areas in the country are
now getting up to sixteen (16) hours of power supply daily.
Nebo delivered the speech yesterday at the ministerial platform; also
speaking, minister of state for power, Zainab Kuchi, said, "We can't
exactly say when we will deliver power 24/7, but we would like to
assure you that it will soon happen."
Prof. Nebo strongly condemned the continued vandalisation of
electricity installation across the country, calling on members of the
public to join the government in tackling the menace. He said the
copper wires the vandals seek are of much less worth than that of
equipment destroyed.
"In one of the discos, vandals removed copper worth N10, 000 from a
transformer. It cost about N27 million to fix it and a million people
were knocked out of power," he lamented.
Furthermore, the minister has once again shifted the date for the
payment of severance packages to electricity workers which remain a
contentious issue hanging over the privatization programme.
It would be recalled that Nebo had on April 22 said at the banquet
hall of the State House, Abuja, that before the endof June 2013,
government would have completed the payment of PHCN severance
benefits.
The ministry had promised to commence payment on June 17.
He stressed that though the payments would have commenced last week,
it would not take off as envisaged.
Nebo said, however, "Resolution of labour issues is also completed.
The severance pay to Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) workers
will commence this week." He later changed 'this week' to 'soon'.
The Minister said work was almost concluded on the establishment of
National Council on Power, stressing that the Council would harmonize
the activities of the federal, state and local governments and other
players for effective coordination of efforts in the Power Sector.
He said: "The Ministry will leverage on the abundant Renewable Energy
sources in the country which are environmentally friendly to increase
power generation and guarantee security of supply."
He however assured that the nation would soon witness a rebirth in
electricity supply as it happened in thetelecoms sector when private
investors take over ownership of the sector.
The minister told a bewildered audience that President Goodluck
Jonathan administration has done wellso far, and that his team would
consolidate the gains in previous year's performance and improve
availability of power supply between 16-24 hours per day for
Nigerians.
To achieve most of its targets, he said government had commenced a
major restructuring of the Ministry of Power and its agencies to cope
with the evolving role in a privatized environment.