Nigerians have been assured of reduction in the cost of electricity, with the current
effort to step up generation and distribution of power in the country.
The Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu gave the assurance on Thursday, October
when he received the Executive Secretary of the National Lottery Trust Fund, Mr. Tosin
Adeyanju, who led the management team of the agency to pay a courtesy call on the
Minister at the headquarters of the ministry in Abuja.
The Minister said that it is worthy to note that the price of electricity is still the cheapest
in Nigeria, compared to even other African nations such as Togo, Mali and Niger
Republic. He however said that the low level of income in Nigeria makes the cost looks
high to consumers.
He also said that it is still far cheaper to use electricity than to run generators, using
petrol or diesel, going by the prices of those commodities today.
The Lottery boss commended the Minister for his outstanding performance, his
competence, and capacity, since his assumption of office about a year ago, and in
restoring the confidence of Nigerians in the power sector.
“Permit me to address you as a performing minister of Power, because since 1999, we
have not witnessed the improvement that we have in the electricity supply in the
country, as we have today. Before now, many were already opting for solar as supply
was totally abysmal. But you have restored people’s confidence in the sector since you
came on board”, Adeyanju said.
He informed the Minister that as part of the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola
Tinubu, the agency is working to get the youths, particularly in the rural areas, to be
productive by training them on how to assemble One Kilowatt of solar energy.
“We have come to you to seek partnership with you on how we can train our rural
people, particularly the youths, on how they can assemble one kilowatt of solar energy.
This will help a long way in addressing youth restiveness by creating employment for
them, particularly those who have acquired skills such as hair dressing, vulcanizing,
welding and so on like that.
“This is part of our effort to help President Tinubu to achieve his aim of addressing the
challenges of unemployment among the rural people and the youths in general. We
want to carry this out in all the local government areas of the country and since we have
seeing your commitment in this area of power supply, we have decided to approach
your ministry for partnership to achieve this”, Adeyanju said.
Chief Adelabu expressed the readiness of the ministry and its relevant agencies to
collaborate and work with Trust Fund to achieve the objective.
He said the renewable power project of the ministry was established to address the
areas of the country that the grid does not cover.
“We will be very happy to work and partner with you on this project. We have agencies
that are driving this renewable power project, using solar, wind and other alternative
sources of power supply where the grid cannot reach. Such agency is our Rural
Electricity Agency (REA) and they will be of great value to you in this project.
“All over the world today, we are faced with two basic issues and these are food and
energy securities. We can see that the cost of gas is going up globally due partly to the
war between Russia and Ukraine.
“However, we must be committed to providing electricity to our rural people,
particularly the youths. We can see that even those of them who have learnt skills have
abandoned those skills and are now riding okada for quick money.
“President Tinubu is committed to the transformation of Nigeria and youths and rural
development are of his great concern. If Nigerians are patience, they will realise that the
government means well for them.
“We are happy with this effort and will be very willing to work and collaborate with you to
achieve it”, the Minister said.