The Federal Government on Wednesday said the distribution of the four million free electricity prepaid meters pledged by the Central Bank of Nigeria would soon begin across the country.
The Minister of Power, Mamman Saleh, said this while answering questions from State House correspondents after the weekly Federal Executive Council meeting presided over by the President, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The CBN had promised to augment the government’s effort to distribute free prepaid meters with additional four million pieces.
Saleh assured Nigerians that the government was wrapping up the distribution of its initial one million meters, which he labelled phase zero, and would soon begin the distribution of the four million others, which he dubbed phase one.
He said, “It’s ongoing; we are almost rounding off. We have almost finished with phase zero. We are now going into phase one of the distribution of the metres; that is the remaining four million the Central Bank promised to augment with.
“The first set is one million; we’re about to finish with that, but you know, it’s not the target, one million is very negligible compared to the demand of Nigerians.”
The minister added that Nigeria now generates 5,000 MW as opposed to the initial 3,000MW.
He further disclosed that the Federal Executive Council approved $8.29m as well as N3bn for the execution of six major electricity projects in the country.
Saleh said the projects, which include the procurement of equipment as well as designs and manufactures, were meant to upgrade Nigeria’s electricity facilities and improve power supply across the country.
He added that the Ministry of Power tabled six memoranda to the FEC, with all six approved.
He said, “The Federal Executive Council today approved six memos under the Ministry of Power. The first one is the award of a contract for design, manufacturing and supply of critical spare parts for Crompton Greaves 330 kV, 132 kV and 33 kV circuit breakers to Messrs. Legen Engineering Nigeria Limited in the sum of N298,339,887.04.
“The second one is the award of the contract for the procurement of 50 sets of 400 AH battery banks, 30 to 50 volts and 30 number of 110-volt battery charges for the substation used by the TCN in favour of Messrs. DTS Transformers Electric Industry Limited at the sum of N644,805,953.10.
“The third award of contract is for the procurement of 50 sets also of 132 kV isolators for the TCN in favour of Messrs. Leading Diagonal Engineering Nigeria Limited in the sum of $840,650 plus N53,900,000 within the delivery period of six months.
“The fourth one is the award the contract for the design, manufacturing and the supply of three 60/66 MVA 132kV power transformers with accessories and 15 number of 500 kV transformers, 33/0.415kV earthing transformers for the TCN in favour of Messrs. Zhenjiang Transformers Company Limited, in the sum of N1,296,953,044.55 with a delivery period of 12 months.
“The fifth one is the award of the contract for the design, supply and installation of Optical Wire and Universal Optical Transportation Network System for some critical transmission lines in favour of Messrs. Xinjiang Power and Transportation Company Limited in the sum of $6,800,743.51, plus N668,843,634.74, with a delivery period of 12 months.
“The last one is the upward review of the contraction for the design, manufacture, supply, installation and commissioning of 1X 100MVA, 132/33kV power transformers at Ogba Transmission Substation, Lagos, in favour of Messrs. Power Control and Appliances Limited in the sum of $648,038.31, plus N48,342,524.18, with the delivery period of six months.
“All these procurements are geared towards upgrades of the transmission system, to the national grid, so that we can have sufficient power supply to the nation,” the minister added.
