The Minister of Power, Chinedu Nebo has charged Brazil to exercise synergy and co-operation towards Nigeria's quest to ensure electricity supply for all its citizens.
Chinedu Nebo made this demand recently in his office while receiving the Brazilian delegation led by the Vice-Minister of Development, Industry and International Trade, Ricardo Shaefer. He expressed Nigerian Government's preparedness to revamp the ailing power sector with assistance from across the world.
"Brazil has not penetrated enough into our on-going sales of power assets. We are prepared to link you with Nigerian partners, so that we can benefit from your expertise in power generation, distribution, technology access and capacity building," he said.
The Minister disclosed that Brazil has done well in many aspects of electricity, especially in big hydro, biomass, solar, wind and coal to power; saying Nigeria intends to learn from the experience of Brazil as the country has already speeded up in the attainment of its development goals.
On rural electrification, the Power Minister reiterated that the leadership shown by Brazil to other countries in the Third World has provided such ray of hope that will enable Nigeria to overcome her development challenges shortly. He also spoke on the country's challenges towards addressing the metering gap. He further explained that the problem arose from the fact that over 50% of electricity consumers have no meters. "In a privatised electricity market, would-be investors are scared by inability to make good from their investments," he said.
The Permanent Secretary in the Power Ministry, Godknows Igali in his remarks pointed that opportunities in the power sector is in mega dimension. Adding, the nation's target to move from over 4,000 mega watts to 40,000 in the next seven years would require double efforts from Nigeria's friends abroad.
"There are opportunities in the planned expansion of generation capacity which will attract specialised companies interested in cables, switches and transformers as the market are huge. We are interested in Brazil. We want to share from the knowledge and experience of Brazil in renewable energy, the reform process and training of our young engineers," he stressed.
Speaking earlier, the Vice Minister, Ricardo Shaefer on behalf of the Brazilian delegation which comprised of the Secretary of Commerce and Services, Humberto Ribeiro; Joa Andra Lima and top Business Executives, commended Nigerian Government's commitment to reviving the power sector.
He said the mission of the group is to know the challenges faced by Nigeria in the sector with a view to assisting in proffering workable solutions.
Source: Revamping Power Sector: Minister tasks Brazil on electricity development challenges (http://fmi.gov.ng/latest/31633/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=revamping-power-sector-minister-tasks-brazil-on-electricity-development-challenges)
Federal Ministry of Information (FMI) Nigeria