Corruption of our values much more endemic, damaging - Fashola

The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola says the corruption of ``our values is much more endemic and damaging’’ than the corruption involving cash.

Fashola stated this when he featured on the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum on Wednesday in Abuja. He was commenting on challenges associated with accessing the Federal Government Staff Housing Loan and the National Housing Fund.

He said that even though the process of accessing both facilities could be tedious, he was aware that some civil servants had benefitted from the schemes.

Cue in audio

``Let us look in the mirror; if it is not working for us, we need to change; we are the ones who should provide for everybody so if we cannot provide for ourselves, something is wrong.

``So, we need to change because we are supposed to be the drivers of the system; not only must we do it so that we can benefit, we must do it so that those who entrust us with these responsibilities will also benefit.

``When we are talking about corruption and other things, it goes beyond cash; because cash you can replace.

``The corruption of our values are much more endemic and damaging that it takes much more time to build them; so we must just insist that things are done properly.’’

Cue out audio

Fashola stressed the need for managers of the facilities to be upright and ensure that those for whom the facilities were meant, benefitted maximally.

The minister canvassed for a system that would look after everybody not only civil servants, because they represent a very small fraction of the Nigerian population.

``A system that wants to look after only civil servants is something that we should rethink because civil servants represent a very small fraction of the Nigerian population.

``And if this is public service, the system must be designed, therefore, to look after everybody without leaving public servants behind.

``So, a housing policy that seems to look after everybody is what I will favour, but ensuring also that it protects those who deliver it.’’

On artisans’ skill acquisition and training, Fashola said that the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), the body that certifies artisans among other professionals in the technical field, should be reinforced not to go below acceptable standard.

He also urged Nigerians to use policies of government to create opportunities in various sectors of the economy in order to boost artisans’ skills.

``If an artisan is not qualified yet to start working without supervision, let us not graduate him.

``It is just enforcement, it is law and order; we need to stop cutting corners, we need to stop accepting standard that are not sufficient.’’ 

(NAN)

Continue Reading

Nigeria, France sign N14bn power sector MoU

The Federal Government and France have signed a 14 billion naira loan agreement for capacity-building and upgrade of power training facility in Nigeria. This is contained in a statement issued on Tuesday by Mr Olivier Delefosse, Country Director, French Development Agency (AFD).

Delefosse said the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed during the recent visit of President François Hollande of the France to Abuja to attend the Second Regional Summit. According to him, the agreements were signed between AFD and the Ministry of Finance in the presence of Hollande and President Muhamadi Buhari.

“A 46.2 million U.S. dollars (about N13bn) subsidised loan granted by AFD to the Government of Nigeria, to enhance vocational training in the power sector, was signed.

“A 100 million U.S. dollars (about N248bn) subsidised line of credit granted by AFD to Zenith Bank, dedicated to the financing of investments of electricity distribution companies (DisCos), was signed.”

Delefosse also said that additional and paired financing agreements were signed by Mrs Laurence Breton-Moyet, AFD Chief Operating Officer and a member of the AFD Executive Board.

“A 350,000 euro (about 120 million naira) Grant Agreement was signed between AFD, Schneider Electric Nigeria and National Power Training Institute of Nigeria (NAPTIN),” he said.

“The agreement aimed at implementing a Technical Partnership between Schneider Electric Nigeria and NAPTIN for the development of a flexible and affordable training program for freelance electricians.

According to him, this is in order to improve the quality and safety standards for domestic installations in Nigeria and promote structured entrepreneurship in the power sector;

“A 350,000 euro Grant Agreement was signed between AFD, CODIFOR (AFPI International) and the Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED).
Delefosse said that the agreement is aimed at implementing a Technical Partnership between CODIFOR and NAPTIN for the enhancement of private interest participation in the governance of the Nigerian power sector.

“A 2.3 million euro Grant Agreement was signed between AFD and ANED, funded by the African Infrastructure Trust Fund of the EU.

“It is aimed at implementing a technical assistance for DISCOs, ANED and local banks in order to improve the quality of electricity distribution projects, and access to finance.

“This project is combined with the above-mentioned Line of credit of 100 MUSD for CAPEX investment for the DisCos,” he said.

Delefosse said the agreements confirmed the strong partnership between AFD, the federal government and local and international public and private stakeholders in favour of the power sector in Nigeria.

He said power is a key priority for AFD group in Nigeria, through private loans to electricity generating companies (GenCos) and sovereign loans for Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN).

Delefosse said other areas through which AFD supported Nigeria’s power sector are credit facilities to local banks for DisCos investments, support to the vocational training and credit facilities for green energy projects.

The AFD Country Director said Hollande also made an announcement related to the launch of the French Initiative for Lake Chad. According to him, the Initiative will be carried out by AFD.

Continue Reading

Buhari to probe $16b power investment by Obasanjo & Jonathan

President Muhammadu Buhari has vowed to investigate the $16 billion spent by the Olusegun Obasanjo and the Goodluck Jonathan administrations in the power over the years.

Despite the huge investment in the sector by the previous administrations, Nigerians are still grappling with poor power supply and most companies have closed down or relocated to other countries, due to non availability of electricity for production.

President Buhari made this known in an interview in Katsina monitored on radio and television. While reiterating his administration’s desire to improve power supply in the country, President Buhari disclosed that he would look into the investment in the sector by previous administrations.

“It is a must for us to look into the investment in the power sector because nothing will work without adequate power supply in the country. The problem of the power sector is like that of the petroleum industry. We will look at how they spent the money because there is no power and nothing to show for the $16b investment by the previous administrations,” he said.

He assured Nigerians that he would do his best to turn around the fortunes of the country through the effective utilisation of available resources.

On the 2016 budget, the president said he would do his best to implement it.

“We will do our best to fix the country. When the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udo Udoma, asked me to sign the budget weeks ago and there were issues, I told him I won’t. But when he insisted, I told him if I assented to it and anything happened, he would be held responsible. He accepted and left. But when he had a second thought, he ran back to me and agreed with me that we shouldn’t sign it. It was at that point I heard of padding. The committees of the National Assembly removed our projects and replaced it with theirs.

“That’s was why we had three weeks to look at it. When he returned to me again, Udoma told me that most of the projects they (National Assembly) included had been removed but that we can go with the remaining ones since I must approve money before funds would be released for the execution of projects, “ he said.

On the recovery of stolen funds, he said all the stolen funds would be recovered and the perpetrators would not be spared. He said adequate attention would be given to the agricultural sector in a renewed effort to diversify the country’s economy.

“We will work hard to restore the glory of the agricultural sector to ensure food security in the country.”

On the activities of the Niger Delta militants, he said they would be dealt with at the appropriate time. Quoting a slogan familiar with former Head of State, retired General Yakubu Gowon after the civil war, Buhari said, “To keep Nigeria one is a task that must be won.”

-PMN

Continue Reading

Power generation crumbles to 0MW for several hours

Nigeria’s power generation collapsed completely on Thursday at exactly 12.58pm to zero megawatt and this persisted for about three hours. Data from the country’s System Operator showed that around 1pm on Thursday, no power generation company in Nigeria produced a single megawatt of electricity.

Industry operators told our correspondent that as a result of the complete collapse, no electricity distribution company received load allocation beginning from when the collapse was recorded up till around 3pm.

The SO stated that the 11 distribution companies got zero electricity load allocation during the period of the collapse, meaning that for about three hours on Thursday no part of Nigeria got power supply from the national grid.

Punch correspondent, however, gathered that supply of electricity was restored around 3pm. For instance, out of the 450MW that was due Abuja Electricity Distribution Company, the Disco only got about 50MW when the situation began to improve.

Before the collapse, AEDC got an allocation of 257.97MW and the nationwide generation level stood at 2,243.2MW. Sources in the sector blamed the complete collapse in power generation on the extent of destruction of infrastructure and gas pipelines vandalism that had happened in the industry over the past years, as well as the poor upgrade of power installations across the country.

“The power crisis being experienced nationwide since Tuesday this week has worsened on Thursday with a total system collapse at exactly 12.58pm this afternoon. At that point, the nation went to ground zero, with all the Discos receiving zero MW allocation from the System Operator,” an operator in the sector told our correspondent in confidence.

Officials from the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing as well as private investors, had attributed the never-ending fall in electricity generation to vandalism of gas pipelines and destruction of vital infrastructure in the industry by miscreants.

“Aside pipelines vandalism, some miscreants have been involved in the destruction of vital power infrastructure and this has been affecting not just generation but transmission and distribution as well,” a senior official at the power ministry who spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to speak on the matter, had said.

The official also stressed that the ongoing difficulty in the downstream oil industry was also impacting negatively on the power sector.

-Punch

Continue Reading