Victoria Mbangwa
The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has urged the Federal Government to ramp up investment in the nation’s power sector, stressing that increased funding is essential to meet ambitious electricity generation targets and foster national development.
Engr. Sule Ahmed Abdulaziz, the Managing Director of TCN, made the call during a recent inspection of newly commissioned power transformers at the company’s substations in Lagos. His comments come in light of the Federal Government’s goal to boost Nigeria’s power generation capacity by 10,000 megawatts by 2025.
Abdulaziz emphasized that reaching such targets would require substantial financial backing, highlighting the scale and complexity of the task. He noted that the power sector is capital-intensive, drawing comparisons to other nations like India, which allocates over $500 million annually for its electricity infrastructure.
He said, “When we are talking about 10,000, 20,000 or 25,000 megawatts, you know, we need a lot of money, a lot of investment.
“The power sector is not something cheap, we can meet it and even do more than that, but we need investment. People are comparing Nigeria to other countries, if you look at India for example, in a year they have over $500 million budget for electricity.
“We know that government has a lot of things to do, but electricity is one of the important things you give your people because it will help them develop. So we can reach that target, but we need more investment in the sector.
“The newly commissioned 100/125MVA power transformer at the Sango-Otta substation has increased the installed capacity of the substation from 160MW to 260MW. With this, there will be available power supply for Ibadan and Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company to offtake to their customers in Ota, Iju, Sango, Ijoko, Abeokuta, and its environs.
“Meanwhile, the commissioning of 100MVA power transformer at Alausa substation and the capacity of the substation has increased to 230MVA. This means there will bulk power available for Ikeja Distribution Company to offtake to its customers in Ikeja, Oregun, Alausa, Ojodu Berger and environs.”
