The Federal Executive Council
There are dams in Gombe, Osun, Kano and Katsina that can generate considerable megawatts of electricity but are waiting for turbines to be installed.
Briefing State House correspondents, Information Minis-ter Labaran Maku said the council deliberated on the report of the Presidential Projects Assessment Commit-tee, headed by Ibrahim Bunu.
He explained that they concentrated on how to achieve stability in power within the lifespan of the Goodluck Jonathan administration.Maku said that the committee had noted in their report submitted a few months ago that there were many dams across the country and that their hydro generating capacity would add a lot of power to the National Integrated Power Project (NIPP).
He explained that it was discovered that gas supply to the power plants posed the greatest problem to stability, but he was quick to add that the Gas Master Plan would on implementation address the problem when the Ministry of Power synchronises their work agenda with that of Ministry of Petroleum.
“The president had earlier insisted that because of the significance of the project assessment committee which is chaired by Architect Bunu, former Minister of FCT, there was need for the Federal Executive Council to listen to the report sector by sector, so that government will derive maximum benefit from the recommendations of the PPAC.
“The chairman and members of the committee in today’s meeting therefore focused on the power sector projects that are going on in parts of the federation. They gave the exco a rundown of their tour of power projects, the level of progress and issues in the field.
“The report focused mainly on how government must do everything possible to ensure that power projects are delivered in good time so that the major sector in which this nation is looking up to us will give results in the lifetime of this administration.
“They toured all the projects, the gas power projects, particularly the NIPP projects and the committee recommended that one of the issues that we should take time to address is gas supply.
“Today, the ministries of power and petroleum resources informed council that the gas master plan is already on ground and everything was being done to ensure that it is delivered, so that by the time power projects are completed, there will be gas to run them. The NIPP projects which will give this country over 4000mw electricity are at about 80 per cent completion in the field," Maku explained.
He explained that key among the recommendations the committee made was that all over the country, there are uncompleted dams which could generate a lot of hydro-electricity projects for the country, especially Dadinkowa dam in Gombe State, which has 34mw capacity and other dams in Gombe, Osun, Kano and Katsina States that are waiting for turbines to be installed.
Minister of Power, Prof. Barth Nnaji, Maku continued, informed the council that he had ahead of the report planned to bring the hydro dam completion to focus.
He said that since the Bunu report and recommendations were sector by sector, the council would next week focus on Ministry of Works, pointing out that it was better they took the criticisms and proceed in the right direction for results.
“The other issue we received in council today was a memo by the Minister of Finance to seek approval to enable Nigeria pay its own counterpart funding of its contribution to the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) fund for international development. The OPEC fund for international development was established in 1976 in Vienna.
“The purpose of this fund was to enable oil-producing countries to put aside some money to assist countries that do not produce oil.“In 1976, Nigeria made a promise to contribute $177.7 million to the fund and over this period the country has been making its own contribution. But earlier this year, there was a meeting of the fund in Vienna and there was a need for all member countries to complete their own contribution.
“Nigeria has a balance of $43.3 million to pay to this fund. So today, the Minister of Finance brought a memo which council approved to enable Nigeria pay this contribution to OPEC.
“The money will be paid instalmentally between 2013 and 2020. This fund is very important because it has helped a number of developing countries, particularly in the South, to cope with some of the pressures they go through,” he said.
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