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40,000mw can’t guarantee uninterrupted power supply, says minister

THE Federal Government yesterday expressed doubt over the ability of the proposed 40,000 mega watts (mw), which the country planned to achieve by year 20:2020, to supply enough power for industries and over 150 million Nigerians.

The Minister of Power, Prof. Barth Nnaji, while speaking at a seminar organised by the Construction and Engineering Services Group of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and in Industry (LCCI) in Lagos, stated that government was ready to confront any stumbling block to the realisation of government’s target to generate the 40,000mw by year 2020.


Meanwhile, some contentious issues in the maritime sector such as goods clearance and abandoned ships funds returned to the front burner yesterday.

For example, the president of the National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLCA) and member of the Presidential Taskforce on Customs Reform, Mr Lucky Amiwero, has faulted the claims by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance, Mr. Danladi Kifasi, that delayed cargo clearance at the nation’s seaports was due to the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS’s) non-compliance with Information Technology (IT).

Also, the era of private sector operators rejecting youth corps members posted to them for their primary assignment may soon be over, going by the pronouncement of the Youth Development Minister, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi.
Henceforth, according to the minister, only private sector employers willing to give automatic employment to corps members will have the privilege of securing their services.
Nnaji who puts Nigeria’s electricity generation as at last Friday, at 3,982.7mw, stated that the government was under no illusion that the 40,000mw would be enough for a vibrant population in Nigeria.

The minister disclosed that the quantum of electricity in South Africa which has about a third of Nigeria’s population and generates 40,000mw, has in the last few years proved inadequate, as the country has been experiencing load shedding or power rationing since 2008.
Nnaji, who was represented by his Special Adviser, C.Don Adinuba, explained that the country would experience astronomical increase in the demand for power when the supply situation increases.
According to him: “As the power supply situation improves, big manufacturing firms, which went off grid years ago because of the tremendous damage to their machines and equipments caused by constant power outages will rejoin the national grid.

“The obvious improvement in the national economy arising out of the improved electricity supply will encourage new companies to spring up in the country, thus increasing the demand for electricity.  Manufacturing companies, which have been the greatest casualties of our power crisis, will be perhaps the greatest beneficiaries, together with engineering professionals”.
Kifasi, alongside the Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and others, while exonerating themselves from allegations of misappropriating billions of naira over the award of an IT contract to Single Window Systems Technology (SWST) Limited, for the overhauling of the NCS’s IT system at a Hon. Leo Okuweh Ogor-led House of Representatives’ public hearing recently, claimed that the NCS operations were conducted manually. He added that the agency was lagging behind in terms of developing IT for its operations.

But Amiwero, who was appointed Chairman on Single Window Concept/Terminal Operations by the Reconstituted Presidential Task Force on Customs Reforms, described Kifasi’s claims as baseless, saying that the taskforce never recommended the usurpation of the IT contract with Messrs Webbfantaine as advanced by Kifasi.

Amiwero, the Principal Consultant at Eyis Resources Limited, emphasized that the taskforce, after identifying the areas of improvements and deficiencies of Webb Fontaine, recommended that the company should improve on its services with a view to achieving a common integrated platform that would accommodate all stakeholders in the port processes and procedures.
Still on maritime issues, it would be recalled that President Goodluck Jonathan was recently urged by shippers to release funds which he promised for the clearing of abandoned vessels and wreckages that are posing dangers to the lives and property of those living around Lekki axis and the Lagos waterways.

The call was made in Lagos by Christopher Eboseremen, Managing Director of Chosen Oil and Gas Limited, an indigenous shipper who lost his vessel to a tidal wave that swept through the Takwa Bay beach early this year.

According to Eboseremen, this was necessary to ameliorate the condition of local shippers who lost their lifetime investments to natural causes as well as boost investors’ confidence in the administration.
Jonathan had during a recent visit to Lagos promised the state government his administration’s readiness to provide funds for the removal of vessel carcasses that now constitute danger on the waterways.

“I appeal to President Jonathan to expedite action on the issue as the Lagos State government has threatened to drag me to court over my beached vessel, MT Techno-Horizon,” Eboseremen stated.
“I hope that if the money is released to the Lagos State government, the pressure on me to remove the vessel will reduce as the state government will have the required funds and capacity to clear the wreckages and carcasses.”

Abdullahi, who for the better part of this week moved his office to Lagos, said this while hosting civil society organizations, non-governmental organizations, youth empowerment groups and major acts in the entertainment industry, among others.

He said this was one of the major reforms the National Youth service Corps (NYSC) would be experiencing in the months to come.

Abdullahi said corps members would only be engaged in the agricultural sector, Information Communication Technology (ICT) and other sectors according to the peculiarity and comparative advantage of host states.

He said private sector employers would be compelled to sign an undertaking that any youth corps member posted to them will be employed at the end of his or her service year.
The minister said part of the new focus of his ministry was skills development, adding that it would henceforth de-emphasize infrastructural development.

“What business do we have with infrastructure? A vocational centre is built at a cost of over N1 billion. You can imagine how many jobs that can be created if channeled into skills acquisition and empowerment.

“Nigeria has no business bringing in masons, tillers, bricklayers, electricians among others from neighbouring countries, if we get it right,” he said.

Abdullahi assured that close synergy would be built among ministries such that each ministry would be encouraged to contribute substantial sums into the 2012 budget to create jobs for the teeming unemployed youths in the country.

He assured that as part of efforts at assuring that more jobs were created, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) recently gave a seal to a new directive on job creation for the youths.
Abdullahi said while he was not obvious of the lack of requisite skills by Nigerian graduates to fit into existing job requirements, efforts would not be spared by his ministry to ensure that their skills were upgraded for marketability.
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