The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company, Fortunato Leynes, has stepped down from his position and says it will take at least seven years for Nigerians to enjoy stable power supply.
Leynes, who resigned from the company on Friday after one-and-a-half years in charge, said the challenges facing the country’s power sector stemmed from the destructive activities of gas pipeline vandals, noting that the nation must invest in additional transmission lines to curb wastage in energy transmission.
He said, “Power generation coming from the national grid in Nigeria is still not sufficient to supply the actual power requirement of all customers in the country. Normally, generation supply contracts will have tenure of five to 10 years for this type of capacity to be achieved.
“It is only probably after seven years that I can see a great improvement in Nigeria’s power supply. That is why IBEDC is entering into a power supply contract for embedded generation. That is how we think we can really provide our customers with more hours of power supply.
“Power generation and distribution in Nigeria are being constrained majorly by the destruction of the gas pipelines by vandals. It takes time to build a power plant considering finance and completion date. At least you need four years to build a small one.”
Punch
