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General News of Friday, 24 January 2020

Source: www.mynigeria.com

FG spent N1.7 trillion on power without improvement - El-Rufai

El-Rufai and Buhari El-Rufai and Buhari

Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State has said that the Federal Government spent N1.7 trillion on power in the last three years without much improvement.

The governor made this known while addressing newsmen after the National Economic Council meeting which was presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo in Abuja on Thursday.

Calling on all hands to be on deck, El-Rufai described the power issue in Nigeria as requiring national emergency.

He also stated that the country cannot afford to continue to spend more on a sector which has gulped N1.7 trillion already.

He said: “The National Economic Council appointed two committees last year. I was privileged to chair and we brought a progress report to the council.

“We all agreed that the electricity supply industry is broken and the situation of the power sector is a national emergency that requires all hands to be put on deck to interrogate why the sector is not working for the overall progress and benefit of Nigerians.

“There is the will on the part of the committee members to really go into the root of the problems and speak to ourselves in an honest national conversation and find a way to fix this sector because this country will never make progress, will never create jobs until we industrialize with a functioning electricity sector.

“There are other issues. The entire sector is broken, the tariff is an issue, the way the privatization was done is an issue to many. So, there are many issues. What we have agreed on is that there are fundamental problems in the electricity supply industry.

“The federal government has supported the electricity sector with N1.7 trillion in the last three years and this is not sustainable. So, solutions must be found, those solutions are not going to be nice, they may be painful but the only way to solve the structural problems in the industry is to take some very difficult decisions.”