President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, yesterday said Nigeria should evolve a more efficient and effective tariff structure to achieve constant electricity supply in the country.
Adesina made the assertion, while speaking to State House Correspondents after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the presidential villa, Abuja.
He said electricity was critical to industrialise Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy, adding: “There is no doubt that Nigeria continues to work a lot of power, without power you can’t do anything, industries can’t develop without power.
“There are three components, one I think we need to get the tariff structure because if you don’t have good cost reflective tariff structure, investments from private sector becomes very difficult in the energy sector. The second is to address the liquidity constraints in the power sector.”
Adesina disclosed that the AfDB has invested about $400 million in the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) to help improve electricity generation and distribution, stressing that Nigeria needed to use its gas deposits, as well as hydro and solar energy to improve electricity supply in the country.
“The AfDB is investing heavily right now in the North, specifically in the Jigawa area in solar projects. God is good to Africa and He gave us tremendous amount of sunshine, water, everything is good for Africa.
“All we need to do is take a cable and connect to the sun and we will be fine. So, we just have to optimise the renewable energy potential that we have,” he added.
While commending the Federal Government for the economic growth and reform programmes being implemented, Adesina said he visited the State House to inform President Buhari of AfDB’s involvement in sundry investments and intervention programmes in the country.
The AfDB President said he was in the villa to also convey his gratitude to President Buhari for his leadership role in Nigeria and involvement in continental affairs.
“We have also invested heavily in the Northeast, we have put in almost $258 million to support rehabilitation in terms of health, education, sanitation and water.
“We have engaged in skills development as a way of reviving areas that have been battered and I told Mr. President that that was very important.
“The AfDB also invested in mobilising financing for the country because Nigeria is an investment frontier and that in the African Investment Forum, which the bank held last year, we mobilised about $38.7 billion investments to African in less than 72 hours. About $7.1 billion of that amount actually came to Nigeria,” he stated.
He added that the President expressed appreciation for the work AfDB was doing in Nigeria and the African continent.
