Lai: Nigerians will enjoy 11,000MW of electricity by 2023

Lai Mohammed, minister of information, says Nigerians will enjoy 11,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity by 2023.

The country has 25 electricity generation companies (GenCos) which currently produce less than 5,000MW.

Speaking at a press conference in Abuja on Friday, the minister said the feat will be achieved through the Siemens AG power deal.

In 2019, President Muhammadu Buhari signed a power project deal with Siemens AG, Germany-based firm, to deliver 7,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity to the national grid by 2021.

“Following an agreement with German company Siemens in July 2019 to boost power supply in Nigeria, the stage is set for the perennial power problem to become a thing of the past,” the minister said.

“Under the three-phase agreement, Nigerians will enjoy 7,000 megawatts of reliable power supply by the end of 2021 (phase 1), 11,000 megawatts by the end of 2023 (phase 2) and 25,000 megawatts in the third phase.

“To put things in perspective, Nigeria’s current power generation capacity is more than 13,000 megawatts, but only an average of 3,400 megawatts reliably reach consumers. In essence, the current amount of power that reaches consumers will more than double by the end of next year.

“In addition, this will create thousands of jobs and will leapfrog the country into the next level of industrial and social development.”

On Wednesday, Buhari approved the release of funds for the first phase of the Siemens electricity deal.