FG rakes in N23bn monthly revenue from power generation, says Dagogo-Jack

ABUJA — The Chairman, Presidential Task Force on Power, PTFP, Mr. Beks Dagogo‑Jack, has said the government was earning over N23 billion on monthly basis as revenue from power generation in the country.

Mr. Dagogo‑Jack, who said this at a roundtable meeting for chief executives organised by the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, in Abuja, added that the amount earned from the sector would have been enough to settle the claims of labour within 15 months after privatisation.

Nigeria’s power generation stood below 3,800 megawatts, until Tuesday this week when the government announced it had picked up, hitting 4,105.90 megawatts.

He stated that the total revenuethat came into government coffers from the privatisation of the successor companies of the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria was about N416 billiion, adding that 90 per cent of the money was used to pay labour as severance benefit.

He said: “As we speak today our monthly invoice profile in the market at 4,000MW is in the order of N23 billion. This means that what we paid labour can be seen as a 15-month cost.

“By this, I am underlining the power of political will and wisdom.

“So when we realise that on a monthly basis our invoice at the current energy level is in the order of N23 billion, it means that in about 12 to 13 months, the market would have returned that amount of money.

“Therefore, there is no need to stay and fight labour over that amount of money when there is darkness in the country.”

Dagogo‑Jack stressed the electricity reform process happened because of the quality of political will that was behind it.

In his remarks, the Managing Director of Sovereign Wealth Fund, SWF, Mr. Uche Orji, stated that the fund was set to invest the $200m earmarked to it by the Federal Government to improve gas‑to‑power infrastructure in Nigeria.

According to him, We've just finished some of the agreements terms on how to receive the money and hopefully we will start deploying it within the next couple of months.

Nigeria has the capacity to generate enough power today but there isn't adequate gas. Now to improve this we can invest in pipelines, gas processing, captive power plants and many others.
On why the meeting was called, the Executive Secretary, NCDMB, Mr. Ernest Nwapa, said the programme provided a platform for agencies of government to share their success stories from Nigerian content implementation over the last four years.