My Nigeria…

French Secretary of State for Foreign Trade, Mrs Anne Marie Idrac, has said France may provide permanent solution to the nation’s power problem.
Also yesterday, the Minister of State for Energy (Power), Mrs. Fatima Balaraba Ibrahim, reiterated Federal Governments plans to raise the capacity of electriciy to more than 10,000MW in the next few years.
Speaking to newsmen at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport yesterday, Idrac said she was in the country to hold further discussions on how to solve the problem of electricity in the country, noting that the visit underline the importance of France on the strategic partnership which was decided between Nigeria and France in June this year.
“I am here after the visit of the President of Nigeria in June to President Sarkozy and I want to underline the importance of France on the strategic partnership which was decided between Nigeria and France,” she said.
Speaking on the problem of electricity in Nigeria, she said it was decided between “our two presidents to focus, especially under the umbrella of our strategic partnership, on the question of energy, and I hope it will be possible to sign a number of understanding with the Federal Government.”
She named the Power Ministry as a key actor in the agreement, adding that it was necessary to have a specialised company that would help Nigeria to improve the capacity and the strength of electricity network.
“The strategic partnership between our two countries is quite good, energy is good, but also telecommunication infrastructure, agriculture and so on, but your president underlined the fact that energy was the priority for Nigeria.”
She said the visit would dwell on energy questions, notably production and distribution of electricity, a sector that had been in a pathetic state for several years.
Ibrahim made this statement yesterday at the International Renewable Energy Conference (IREC), which was held in Abuja to generate new strategies that will accelerate the provision of electricity in developing countries of the world.
According to the minister, new strategies to accelerate the provision of electricity must be pursued to achieve the energy target as enshrined in the 7-Point development agenda of President Umar Musa Yar’Adua.
“This obviously calls for the aggressive deployment of grid connected, mini-grid and stand-alone renewable electricity systems in country”, she said.
“I am pleased to say that Nigeria is poised to take advantage of many possibilities of diversifying the technology-mix for power generation. For instance, the procurement process of the first Wind Farm with a capacity of 10MW is already in progress. The project which would be concession on completion is designed to be expanded up 50MW and replicated in other viable locations across the country”, she revealed.
Speaking further, she said that the ongoing reform in the power sector was designed to bestow on the nation with a sustainable electricity industry that is largely driven by the private sector. “One of the landmark decisions of this administration is the approval of a Multi Year framework for determining cost-reflective tariffs for the electricity supply industry. While the existing model is based on new entrants utilizing simple cycle thermal plants, I am pleased to note that the sector regulator, NERC, has already initiated work on creating an appropriate space to accommodate the utilization of renewable sources of energy for grid-connection”.