The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has granted N2.7 billion as additional funding for the construction of homes for the resettlement of those people affected by the construction of the Zungeru Hydroelectric Power Project in Niger State.
Abubakar Aliyu, the Minister of Power, informed State House Correspondents of this at the conclusion of the council meeting on Wednesday, which was presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari.
He said: “Today, I approached the Council to seek approval of revised estimates of total costs for the updated rates of building structures for compensation and resettlement of the communities affected by the construction of the 700 megawatts Zungeru Hydroelectric power project in the total sum of N2,740,000,000, which will revise the subsisting amount from N19,640,000,000 to N22,380,000,000, and the council graciously approved the request.”
Shedding more light on the recent drop in the level of power generation in the country, the Minister said the major problem was that of gas.
“Regarding the drop in electricity, yes, you know, the supplier has so many players; gas, the cost that drops, issues of gas to some power plants; they cannot switch on their plant, you will experience some drop once they switch on and the electricity will increase.”
“There may be a drop due to the fault of the generator and the electricity would drop. It’s mostly generation. I’ve been watching since like yesterday evening, we had a generation of over 4000, around 4600 megawatts.
“And you know, we told you since 1st July, that we’ll be able to raise it up to 5,000 when we activate the contract. And we have not been able to do so, due to some issues around gas contracts, gas to power, which we are trying to take care of. And we have gone very far with that, and I believe, it is for that reason that we’re able to reach up to 4,600 as of yesterday.
“This morning, it dropped to 4,100. So, this is what is happening, you will be experiencing this fluctuation due to all these issues around gas to power because gas is not something that we control directly, you have to pay them, and they will not give you gas until you pay. So, we are looking at ways to solve that issue”, he explained.
