Six million meters are to be deployed nationwide in the first and second quarters of this year to reduce the number of unmetered electricity consumers in Nigeria, the Federal Government has said.
It disclosed in a December 2022 document on the review of the performance of the power sector/Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry under the current administration.
In the document, which was obtained by our correspondent from the Federal Ministry of Power in Abuja on Sunday, the government said it had successfully executed a metering initiative post privatisation with one million meters rolled out in the first phase of the National Mass Metering Programme.
The Minister of Power, Abubakar Aliyu, said the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission were fundamental in designing and implementing this programme.
He said, “We are perfecting plans for an additional six million meters under the second and third phases of the programme that will commence in the first and second quarters of 2023 respectively.
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“The first phase generated 10,000 jobs in installation and assembly and we anticipate over 20,000 additional jobs would be generate in the second phase. Both the phases have sustainable financing structures.”
He said the government was also establishing a Meter Service Fund that would allow for continuous metering in the NESI.
Aliyu said the government would bequeath to Nigerians 4,000 megawatts of additional generating capacity, as it would complete and inaugurate the 700MW Zungeru Hydropower plant in the first quarter of 2023.
“We will also see to the operationalisation of the 240MW Afam III and 300MW Okpai Phase II to mention a few. We will set the country on a stable path for 10,000MW of supplied energy,” he stated.
The minister added, “Today we are at 8,000MW with 5,000MW on-grid and 3,000MW+ of industrial captive off-grid, and we will leave an installed capacity of almost 22,000MW. We also have robust programmes ongoing with facilities and investments secured of over $3bn to eliminate the large gap between our transmission capacity and supplied energy.”
He said the hydropower component of the Kashimbilla Multipurpose Dam was designed and upgraded from 6MW to 40MW with Phase I of the evacuation infrastructure completed in March 2020, covering 245km of
132kV transmission lines and three substations, connecting Takum, Wukari, Rafin Kada, Dounga and Yandev in Taraba and Benue states.
Aliyu said, “The Phase II of the evacuation infrastructure is currently at 45 per cent completion level covering 56km extension of the 132kV transmission line from Yandev to Makurdi and complete rehabilitation of the Yandev substation.
“Phase II of the evacuation infrastructure would lead to the electrification of 24 host communities including Zaki-Biam, Anyi, Buruku, Birama, Bibi, Shibong, among others within Benue State.
“We have changed the narrative of the sector from consumption spending (on subsidies) to real infrastructure spending. A total of 105 power transformer projects were completed during the period 2015 – 2022, adding a capacity of 6,216MVA to the grid, with 73 of the power transformers installed by TCN engineers in substations across the nation.”
Punch
FG deploys Lanre Shittu CNG buses as airport shuttle
The Federal Government has commenced the deployment of Lanre Shittu Motors (LSM)-branded Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) buses in the nation’s airports for passengers shuttle.
The first batch of the CNG-powered buses has been launched at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos, at a ceremony attended by the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Management, Festus Keyamo, and Managing Director, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Mrs Olubunmi Oluwaseun Kuku.
Speaking during the unveiling at the Lagos airport, the minister said the deployment was in line with the directive of President Bola Tinubu.
He said it was part of Nigeria’s commitment to reducing carbon emissions and meeting global climate targets.
‘’What you see here today is a fleet of CNG buses for FAAN to commence passenger movement at all our airports immediately,” the minister said.
He said the newly acquired CNG-powered LSM buses unveiled at the Lagos airport are eco-friendly with zero emission and designed with accessibility features for persons with disabilities.
The deployment, he added, was in compliance with the President’s goal of reducing reliance on traditional fossil fuels of petrol and diesel and promoting sustainable use of CNG to power vehicles in the country.
The introduction of the CNG to power automobiles is one of the Federal Government’s initiatives to ease the impact of fuel subsidy removal on the masses.
The CNG buses, according to the Managing Director of Lanre Shittu Motors, Taiwo Shittu, come in two specifications: a 31-seater for airport shuttle services and a 54-seater for mass transit city buses.
He said they had been equipped with modern amenities, including air conditioning, viewing screens, and charging stations.
With the introduction of the CNG buses, he said LSM aimed to provide a more sustainable and efficient transportation solution not only to Lagos but other parts of the country.
LSM MD extols founder’s qualities after latter posthumous industry award
*He left us a good name, says son
Founder and late Chairman of Lanre Shittu Motors (LSM), Alhaji Olanrewaju Shittu, has been honoured with a Nigerian auto industry posthumous award.
This was announced in Lagos at the 2024 edition of the annual
Nigeria Auto Journalists Association (NAJA) announced this in Lagos at the 2024 recently industry awards.
The prestigious award was received by one of his sons, Mr Taiwo Shittu, who is also the managing director of the auto company.
NAJA said the award was in acknowledgement of the leading role of the LSM founder in the development of the automotive business in Nigeria, describing him as a silent achiever.
Speaking on the honour, Taiwo Shittu, who was also declared the Nigeria’s Auto Personality of the Year, praised his father for painstakingly building the LSM brand and leaving behind a good name to the delight of the children and the entire family members.
He described this as a legacy accounting for the success of the company so far since his father’s demise over a year ago.
He said, “I must thank my late father, Alhaji Razaq Olanrewaju Shittu, for building the brand name. There is nothing like a good name.
“If you don’t leave anything for your children other than a good name, the sky is the limit for them.
“In our own case, he left us money and the good name. We can’t thank him enough for leaving us with a good name.
“You can imagine that everywhere we turn to in the country, once we mention we are Lanre Shittu’s sons, we are ushered in immediately.
“People would say ‘Your father was a good man. He won’t cheat you if you did any business with him. His word was his bond; he never broke his promises’. I have heard this many times. And the only thing we can do is to build on this legacy.”
Taiwo Shittu also noted that the unity existing among the 20 surviving children of the late LSM founder was part of his father’s legacies and something for other family businesses in Nigeria to emulate.
He said, “A lot of businesses collapse after the death of their owners. Once a business founder is dead, the next you hear is that a fight has broken out and while one person is taking the arm, another is claiming the leg, the other is going for the body. And in six months, the whole empire is gone down.
“In our case, we have 20 siblings that are cooperative and believe in my ability to lead the business with my other brothers.
“We had a father who never spoiled us. He taught us sincerity, commitment and accountability.”
He also spoke about the lifestyle of the late father, saying even though he was a car dealer and loved cars, he would only change his main car after every 10 years.
“Yes, he loved cars. He used to have a Rolls Royce. But he no longer had it before he died. What he had was a Mercedes-Benz Maybach. His car garage was not packed full. Even though he was a car dealer, he changed his main car every 10 years.
“He was a very prudent man. At the beginning of his adult life, he had many cars; in the middle, he was prudent. It was at the end that he bought some flashy cars such as Lexus L600, MayBach 650 engine – at that time only he and ex-President Muhammadu Buhari had that car. He bought the car then because the family was preparing for three weddings. By time he died, the MayBach had only run 600 miles.”
The LSM chairman, according to him, started the auto business in the late 1970s as a car dealer with three vehicles.
He said he was so creditworthy that many were willing to release their vehicles to him on credit, adding that this helped the business to grow faster.
He recalled how he would travel to Ogbomosho, Oyo State, and Kaduna to buy cars and returned to Lagos with double the number he could readily paid for.
“Sometimes, he would travel as far as Kaduna to buy 12 cars from PAN, he would be the person driving the last vehicle while others were ahead driving all the way to Lagos,” he stated.
Before delving into automobile assembling, he also recalled that Daewoo and Rolls Royce were the two brands that gave the LSM a real breakthrough.
Nigeria remains oil/gas investment destination with $5bn shell FID – TDF
The Democratic Front (TDF) has announced that Shell’s $5 billion Final Investment Decision (FID) for the Bonga North Deep Offshore field further highlights the investment-friendly approach of the Tinubu administration.
This was disclosed in a statement signed by the Chairman, Mallam Danjuma Muhammad, and Secretary, Chief Wale Adedayo.
The group explained that the investment demonstrates how International Oil Companies (IOCs) still see Nigeria as an attractive destination for investments.
“We join President Bola Tinubu in celebrating the Final Investment Decision (FID) by Shell on Bonga North Offshore Field.”
“It is a thing of pride for us that the investment is the outcome of reforms introduced by the President through the Presidential Directives numbers 40, 41, and 42 to fast-track regulatory approvals, reduce operational costs, and promote competitive fiscal incentives in the oil and gas sector.”
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“We have a conviction that the pertinence of the fresh investment in the sector and indeed the larger Nigeria economy is not only limited to the $5 billion value of the investment but also extends to the field’s potential volume of 350 million barrels of crude oil. It is a development that is bound to further raise the nation’s oil output and revenue as well as bolster its position as Africa’s largest oil producer.”
The group noted that this and other strategic investments, such as TotalEnergies’ $500 million in the Ubeta gas field, are driven by President Tinubu’s fiscal incentives, showcasing the success of his reforms in attracting foreign direct investment to Nigeria’s oil and gas sector.
“The Ubeta upstream field is estimated to produce 350 million standard cubic feet of gas per day when operational and will go a long way to raise the country’s profile as a major gas producer. This remarkable economic feat was unarguably achieved under the economic reform of President Bola Tinubu.”
“It is instructive that since its discovery in 1996, the Bonga deepwater field, located in OML 118, at a water depth exceeding 1000 meters, has not witnessed such a humongous investment as the $5 billion coming from Shell and this is an attestation of President Tinubu’s pro-business approach to governance.”
“Furthermore, this extraordinary display of confidence in Nigeria’s investment ecosystem is a confirmation of the success of the current reforms in eliminating investment encumbrances and the risks of doing business in Nigeria.”
TDF is confident that more IOCs will key into the fiscal incentives introduced by the Tinubu administration to make fresh investments in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector.
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