The Minister of State for Power, Arc. Nuhu Somo Wya, made this known yesterday in Abuja at the Nordic countries energy delegates visit to Nigeria.
“Over the past few decades, successive governments have tried to improve the power supply. Trillions of naira have been spent, but the truth is that little has been achieved. The problems we face today are a testimony of the inadequacy of past policies and the strongest possible signal that Nigeria needs to adopt a radically different approach to finding solution,” Wya said.
Maintaining that the capital needed to improve the sector can only be realized by actualising a robust private sector driven system for the sector, the minister said “I want to make one thing absolutely clear, this government will not repeat the mistakes of the past, we have taken a new position related to the private sector.”
He said government alone cannot make the massive investments required to bring the power sector up to the level of performance, stressing that this calls for a conference to deliberate on the investment opportunities existing in the nation’s power sector.
Informing the delegates on the need to invest in the sector, the minister said,” We have asked you to come to this conference because we are committed to serving our citizens today, and especially tomorrow, by delivering our future power supplies through the full participation of the private sector. We will not make any new promises, but we will demonstrate that through our actions we will deliver.”
Earlier, the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Water Resources, Godknows Igali, who is the sole initiator of the Nordic energy investors’ first visit to Nigeria, said the conference is apt and timely on the grounds that Nigeria has a lot to learn from the Nordic countries who are also willing to invest in the sector.
