The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, will soon begin the distribution of four million free electricity prepaid meters they promised earlier across the country.
This was revealed by the Minister of Power, Mamman Salah, to State House correspondents after the Federal Executive Council meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Aso Rock Villa in Abuja on Wednesday.
The Minister while briefing State House correspondents, explained that the government is closing the distribution of its first one million meters which he tagged as phase zero, stating that they will soon begin the phase one distribution of four million others.
According to the Minister, 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 meters, that is the remaining four million the Central Bank promised to augment with.
He continued that “The first set is one million, we’re about to finish with that, but you know it’s not the target, one million is very negligible compared to the demand of Nigerians.”
Also, the Minister explained that Nigeria is now ready to generate 5000 MW as opposed to the first 3000 MW.
While still speaking, he further revealed that the FEC has authorized $8.29 million for the implementation of six major electricity project in the country which according to him include the procurement of equipment, designs, and manufactures that are meant for the upgrading of Nigeria electricity facilities and to improve power supply across the country.
The Minister also stated how the Ministry of Power under his watch, summitted a six memorandum to the FEC stating that all six been approved.
He said, “The Federal Executive Council today approved six memos under the Ministry of Power. The first one is the award of a contract for the design, manufacturing, and supply of critical spare parts for Crompton Greaves 330 kV, 132 kV, and 33 kV circuit breakers to Messrs by Legen Engineering Nigeria Limited in the sum of N298,339,887.04.
“The second one is the award of the contract for the procurement of 50 sets of 400 AH battery banks, 30 to 50 volts and 30 number of 110-volt battery charges for the substation used by the TCN in favor of Messrs to DTS Transformers Electric Industry Limited at the sum of N644,805,953.10.
“The third award of the contract is for the procurement of 50 cents also of 132 kV isolators for the TCN in favor of Messrs. Leading Diagonal Engineering Nigeria Limited for $840,650 plus N53,900,000 within the delivery period of six months.
“The fourth one is the contract for the design, manufacturing and the supply of three 60/66 MVA 132kV power transformers with accessories and 15 number of 500 kV transformers, 33/0.415kV earthing transformers for the TCN in favor of Messrs. Zhenjiang Transformers Company Limited, in the sum of N1,296,953,044.55 with a delivery period of 12 months.
The fifth one is the award of the contract for the design, supply, and installation of Optical Wire (OPGW) and Universal Optical Transportation Network System (OTN) for some critical transmission lines in favor of Messrs. Xinjiang Power and Transportation Company Limited in the sum of $6,800,743.51, plus N668,843,634.74, with a delivery period of 12 months
“The last one is the upward review of the contraction for the design, manufacture, supply, installation, and commissioning of 1X 100MVA, 132/33kV power transformers at Ogba Transmission Substation, Lagos, in favor of Messrs. Power Control and Appliances Limited, for $648,038.31, plus N48,342,524.18, with the delivery period of six months.
The Minister explained that all these procurements are geared towards upgrades of the transmission system to the national grid so that Nigerians can have a sufficient power supply.
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