The Federal Government of Nigeria requires 10 billion dollars in annual investment to revive the power sector for the next 10 years.
Minister of Power, Mr. Adebayo Adelabu disclosed this at a one-day investigative hearing on halting the electricity tariff increase by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, in Abuja on Monday organised by the Senate Committee on Power.
The minister said the major challenge in the sector was the absence of liquidity, stressing that the sector had been operating on a subsidized tariff regime, given the absence of a cost-reflective tariff.
Adelabu said that the subsidy had not been funded over the years as huge liabilities were being owed to the generating companies and the gas companies.
“For this sector to be revived, government needs to spend nothing less than 10 billion dollars annually in the next 10 years.
“This is because of the infrastructure requirement for the stability of the sector, but the government cannot afford that. And so, we must make this sector attractive to investors and lenders.
“So, for us to attract investors and investment, we must make the sector attractive, and the only way it can be made attractive is that there must be commercial pricing.
“If the value is still at N66 and the government is not paying subsidy, the investors will not come.
“But now that we have increased the tariff for a band, there is interest being shown by investors,” Adelabu said.
