- FG said that the cause of the blackouts is due to a combination of challenges.
- Minister of Power assures Nigerians that the issues are being addressed.
According to the Federal Government, a combination of challenges is the reason behind the deplorable electricity supply situation nationwide. This was made known at the virtual Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
In the meeting, the Minister of Power, Abubakar Aliyu, said the electricity challenges are being addressed. According to a report by the Nations Newspaper, Aliyu noted that besides the collapse of the grid, other issues, including scheduled maintenance of facilities, vandalisation of pipelines as well as the disputes around the availability of gas and payment for gas contracts between gas companies and power generating companies, had contributed to the current power crisis.
“The more reason we are facing the situation now is due to the shortage of gas, and some of the generators have to go to maintenance. “It is a scheduled maintenance, and it is supposed to be scheduled outage, but we had not envisaged that we will have issues around vandalisation of pipelines, which the NNPC has addressed as you can see evidence everywhere, aviation fuel, and petrol in the filling stations,” he said.
The Minister also clarified the quantity of generated electricity in the country, saying: “We have a capacity of 8,000 megawatts – the one on the grid, imbedded and captive. If you combine all of them, you will get these problems that we are encountering. We are on top of the challenge, and very soon, we will come out of it”.