Minister of Power, Mamman Saleh says the Federal Government is now set to begin distribution of 4 million electricity meters promised by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Briefing State House correspondents at the end of the Council meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the First Lady’s Conference Room, Presidential Villa, Abuja, the Minister of Power, Engr Mamman Saleh, said that there was an improvement in power generation, adding that the country generates 5, 000 megawatts from the initial 3,000 megawatts it was generating.
The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, had promised to make available four million pre-paid electricity meters aside from the one million the government earlier provided which were being distributed nationwide.
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This is as the Federal Executive Council, FEC, at its 44th virtual meeting approved sums worth more than $8.29 million as well as N3 billion for the execution of various electricity projects in the country.
The Minister said that government was almost getting through with the distribution of one million pre-free paid meters to Nigerians.
Fielding question on the progress report with the distribution of the one million pre-paid meters, 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 are about to finish with that, but you know, it is not the target, one million is very negligible compared to the demand of Nigerians.”
Further asked whether there was any improvement in power generation, he said, “We are improving, it (power generation) has improved, you can see, I don’t have to tell you.
“We are moving from 3000 megawatts, today we are generating up up to 5000 megawatts or over that, so it is a great improvement.”
Speaking to journalists on the approvals granted by the council, Engr Saleh, said most of the projects are procurement of equipment as well as designs and manufactures.
He also said that some are for the upgrade of the nation’s electricity facility and improvement of power supply across the country.
He said, the Ministry of Power presented six memoranda to the FEC and that all the memos were approved.
