Sale Mamman: In future, Nigerians will look back and say Buhari fixed electricity

Sale Mamman, the minister of power, says Nigerians will, in the future, look back with pride to reflect on how President Muhammadu Buhari fixed the power sector.

In a Twitter post on Wednesday, the minister said the present administration has recorded significant progress in the electricity industry.

Mamman stated that the administration is on track to transform the embattled sector.

“In the near future, we Nigerians will be able to look back with pride and say the administration of President Buhari fixed and transformed the power sector. We are on the right track!” Mamman said.

“We have recorded significant progress and we have also used this medium to keep Nigerians informed.”

In the near future, we Nigerians will be able to look back with pride and say the administration of President @MBuhari fixed & transformed the Power sector.
We are on the right track!

— Engr. Sale Mamman (@EngrSMamman) September 30, 2020

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

In May, Buhari approved the release of funds for the first phase of the Siemens electricity deal.

Despite efforts, data made available shows that Nigeria’s actual electricity generation has only increased by 776 megawatts since the privatisation and unbundling of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) in 2013.

According to historical generation data from the Association of Power Generation Companies (APGC), the umbrella body of GenCos, the country’s average energy generation for its 200 million population stood at 3,959 megawatts (MW) as of August 2020.

Although electricity generation capacity has increased to 8,169MW, the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has a wheeling capacity of about 5,500MW, while the distribution companies (DisCos) struggle to distribute 4,500MW to consumers due to technical constraints and load rejections.