Energy
Power: Mambilla Power Project not prioritised by Ministry of Power for 2021 Budget – Finance Minister
Ahmed said that the Mambilla Project was not included in the 2021 Budget because it was not prioritised by the Ministry of Power.
The Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed said the reason the Mambilla Power project was not captured in the 2021 budget is because it was not prioritised by the Ministry of Power.
The Minister disclosed this on Tuesday during the budget defense of her Ministry at the House of Representatives in Abuja. She said that the Mambilla Project was not removed by the Ministry of Finance in the 2021 Budget but was not prioritised by the Ministry of Power.
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” The Ministries know what their priorities are, they are the ones to indicate.
“So if the Minister of Power did not have Mambilla in their submission, it is because they did not provide it, we do not provide the programmes that go into the budget for the Ministries. That’s their responsibility,” Ahmed said.
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Ahmed explained further that the Ministry of Power exceeded the available envelope for its budget.
The Senate had earlier expressed displeasure when it discovered that the much talked about Mambilla Power Project was not captured by the Federal Government in the 2021 Budget.
What you should know
Nairametrics reported last month that President Muhammadu Buhari presented a budget of N13.08 trillion to the National Assembly. Buhari disclosed that key power projects under the budget will be the Multiple Rural Electrification Projects, Mambilla Hydro Power Project, Zungeru Hydro Power Project, and others.
Expected to commence operation in 2030, the Mambilla hydropower project is a 3.05GW hydroelectric facility being developed on the Dongo River near Baruf, in Kakara Village of Taraba State.
READ: FG set to create at least 5 million jobs for youths in the power sector – Minister of Power
Nairametrics reported in January that The Federal Government disbursed funds as compensation to the owners of the land and other property affected by the construction of the Mambilla Hydropower Power plant.
In March, no less than N700 million was disbursed to carry out survey works on the project site of 3,050 megawatts Mambilla Hydropower Plant in Taraba.
Columnists
What FGN Free Meter Program means for the power sector
Without effective penalties for erring DisCos and consumers, progress may still remain very slow.
According to news reports, the Minister of Power, Mamman Saleh on Wednesday said the distribution of the four million free electricity prepaid meters pledged by the Central Bank of Nigeria would soon begin across the country.
According to him, the government is wrapping up the distribution of its initial one million meters, which he labelled phase zero, and would soon begin the distribution of the four million sponsored by CBN, which he tagged phase two. He also noted that the Federal Executive Council approved N3bn for the execution of six major electricity projects in the country to upgrade Nigeria’s electricity facilities and improve power supply across the country.
Ineffective metering remains a major drawback to the success of power sector reforms in Nigeria. While some consumers avoid paying for power consumed through meter bypass, some other consumers are made to pay for what they have not consumed through estimated billing by DisCos.
DisCos have been largely unsuccessful with metering their customers.
As far as inadequate metering is concerned, DisCos over time, have used this situation to their advantage via estimated billings. It appears that fully metering customers are currently being viewed as a disincentive, given that estimated bills can easily be manipulated.
According to a report by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), only 4,234,759 (40.27%) of the total customer population of 10,516,090 were metered as of 30 June 2020. Clearly, this validates the widely held view that there are a wide number of customers on estimated billing which gives room for illegal connection to the networks and in turn corrupt practices. NERC further revealed that only three out of 11 Electricity Distribution Companies in the country had metered more than 50% of electricity customers under their coverage areas as of June 2020.
Effective metering in our view is one step ahead in solving the myriad of problems embattling the Nigerian power sector. Though supposed to be unpaid for, many customers in a bid to avoid the bureaucracy associated with getting meters have paid to get their own meters. We believe the provision of meters to all end-use customers will go a long way in ameliorating the liquidity squeeze in the power sector whilst also providing cashflow to the DisCos for investment in equipment needed to evacuate unused electricity to consumers nationwide.
We laud the FG’s efforts at distributing meters freely to end-users, but we note that without effective penalties for erring DisCos and consumers, progress may still remain very slow.
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Energy
BUA Group awards contract for polypropylene plant in its refinery project
The completion of the project is to help boost Nigeria’s capacity to meet the country’s increasing demand for petrochemical products.
Nigeria’s leading indigenous conglomerate, BUA Group has announced that it has signed a contract agreement with Lummus Technology for the establishment of a polypropylene plant in its refinery and petrochemical project.
The completion of the project is to help boost Nigeria’s capacity to meet the country’s increasing demand for petrochemical products.
The Chairman of BUA Group, Abdul Samad Rabiu, while disclosing the contract agreement, expressed confidence in the capacity and technical expertise of Lummus Technology to deliver a best-in-class project.
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What the Chairman of BUA Group is saying
Rabiu in his statement said, “We are pleased to sign this polypropylene contract for our BUA refinery and petrochemicals project with Lummus Technology, a world leader in delivering polypropylene solutions, which will solve the increasing demand for high-performance grade polypropylene in Nigeria, the Gulf of Guinea as well as the Sub-Saharan Africa Region.
“We are confident in the capacity and technical expertise of Lummus Technology to deliver a best-in-class, 285,000 tpy polypropylene unit for our refinery project scheduled to come on stream in 2024.’’
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What the President/Chief Executive Officer of Lummus Technology is saying
On his part, the President/Chief Executive Officer of Lummus Technology, Leon de Bruyn, said that he was looking forward to working with BUA refinery on the project.
Leon said, “We look forward to working with BUA Refinery on this critical project and supporting the first Novolen polypropylene unit in Nigeria. Our world-class Novolen technology is well suited to meet Nigeria’s increasing demand for the growing petrochemical products market.
It offers a flexible range of industry-leading products for all PP applications, and the industry’s lowest overall capital and operational costs while providing customers with high process reliability and flexibility in responding to market needs.”
READ: BUA Group, French company announce progress in 200,000 bpd refinery project
What you should know
Lummus Novolen Technology GmbH licenses polypropylene technology and provides related engineering and technical support/advisory services. Novolen also supplies NHP® catalysts for the production of high-performance polypropylene grades in the Novolen process, and NOVOCENE® metallocene catalyst for the production of special polypropylene grades.
