Former minister of power and Chief Executive Officer of Geometric Power Limited, Prof Bart Nnaji spoke with CITYVOICE ‘s Omotolani Alamu during the recent West Africa Power 2015 Summit at Eko Hotels & Suite, Lagos. Excerpts:
How is administration in terms of power and energy sector?
The government has to have an effective way of ensuring that we don’t go back and forth, that the power we have now is sustainable and that we continue to grow it. The means that the key issues of generation must be assured and that evacuation of the power must be there. Those are key. It requires that the government put in place in the various stake holding sectors people who are absolutely thinking about the nation. That means not just in the ministry of power, but also in the ministry of finance, Attorney General’s office, that we’ll have people who will work together to deliver.
The CBN recently releases about six billion naira to gas operators. Will that get the job done?
Regular gas supply is so critical, because you have to have the gas well developed, the gas infrastructure developed and unless this is done… in my presentation here, I said in the next many years, 80 percent of the power will come from natural gas and if that is going to happen, then you must continue to grow natural gas. I am not sure that whatever is released is even going to be enough to go as far as we want in the interim. Remember, we have right now domestic gas obligations from the producers of 4.9billion standard cubic feet and only about one third of that is being delivered. So, we even just need to be able to meet the domestic supply obligation and that’s not all that we want. To fill the installed capacity of Nigeria, you need up to 7billion standard cubic feet. In the next 10years, we need about four times that amount. So, we need a lot of investment.
Apart from Nigeria, what is hindering power sufficiency in the region?
What is hindering is that when you look at where the future source will come and people who have capacity to develop power plants like Nigeria and Ghana, they must be able to satisfy their own domestics obligation before they are able to get the power to other places. The transmission network must be there to deliver power to the other countries and the supply must be there.
How have been able to go with your own projects?
The question has to do with the fact that Geometric has an agreement with the Federal Government going back to 2005 and the previous government basically breached that agreement and that it’s not supposed to be, especially as we have invested more than half a billion dollars. That project is sitting completed and waiting for decisions to be made on an agreement that is already there, so it is in progress and we hope that it will be done very soon. The current administration just came into existence, we know that the body language is that they will resolve it. The transition committee has the information and I believe they will resolve it as quickly as possible.
How do you see the introduction of the embedded power scheme?
The embedded power is excellent because and that is what Aba,in fact is all about. You need to have clusters of reliable power supply, so that you power economies of industrial cities. You need to ensure local power companies have control of their local grid and that they have control of some power coming here, that they are not totally reliant on power coming from somewhere else. This has to happen and it’s beginning to happen in some places.
How can you quantify the amount lost to lack of power supply?
It’s difficult to quantify. You know, this is a country of 180million people and the economy is largely powered by private power supply. This has to change, so that the utility companies are able to deliver more power to the population. Power is nearly 40percent of the cost of producing products by members of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria and they cannot compete with other countries’ product.
Aliko Dangote is investing in gas pipe line from Delta to Lagos. Do you think that is something that could do a lot of good for the power sector?
Dangote usually delivers on what he promises, so he can’t come to make an empty promise. I believe he means what he’s saying and that he has the resources to deliver. I also believe this will be very helpful. These things, of course, take some time but I say lets encourage all the people who have capacity to do things to improve the country. Where we usually have problem is where the government is the one holding everything. Others should come in so that all of us join together to develop the infrastructure of the nation in gas supply and in power supply.
What do you think should be done with the TCN, now that the contract with Manitoba is about to expire?
TCN should never go back to government management. Government ownership? Yes. Government management ?No, it is not a good idea. I believe the private sector management was never allowed to work, that is part of the problem. So, the people who were brought to manage had to endure interference from government appointed officers. That is an issue. What should happen is that, perhaps, a short extension can happen or a concession. But we must not go back to government management.