The Federal Government on Tuesday in Abuja said it had provided N40 billion to settle reconciled outstanding electricity bills of its ministries and agencies.
Minister of Budget and National Planning, Mr Udoma Udo Udoma, stated this while addressing The Situation Room, a group of civil society organizations, and said that the gesture was part of strategy to revamp the power sector.
Udoma said the step was imperative because the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan, which was predicated on the 2017 Budget, would not be effective without a bolstered power sector. He said that the budget was designed to expand partnership between public and private sector as well as developmental capital to leverage and spur resources for growth.
He said that other key objectives to focus on were the ongoing critical infrastructure projects such as roads, railways, power and ICT, to have a quick positive effect on the economy. “In order to do that, it is important that every segment of the power sector is commercialized so that the government itself is making sure to settle its bills to the Discos to make sure that power is effective.
“So, we are looking at N40 billion to settle some of the bills MDAs have in the power sector.’’ Udoma said that the government would also invest N9.5 billion on rural electrification projects in federal universities in its quest for sustainable power.
He said that N10 billion had also been earmarked for the construction of 3,050-megawatt Mambilla hydropower project. He added that N10.02 billion had been put aside for the completion of power evacuation facility for 400-megawatt Kashimbila hydropower plant.
No comments:
Post a Comment