Chatham House: I’ll declare war on generator sellers standing against power sector reform – Peter Obi

 

Peter Obi, the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party has said he will declare war on generator sellers and assemblers.

Who will threaten any reform aimed at upscaling power generation in the country.

Obi said this during a presentation at Chatham House in the UK on Monday

The former Anambra State governor said during his speech that he targets 25,000MW of power by 2025 if elected as president in February.

Nigeria currently generates 5,000 mega watts of electricity for over 200 million thereby frustrating business and heightening power costs.

Investors are also skeptical of investing in the country due to the epileptic power supply. Nigeria’s national electricity grid collapsed more than seven times in 2022.

But many households and businesses depend on alternative power supply which involves the generator sector to power their plants.

Obi said, “The big boys (Mikano, JMG and Jubaila Brothers etc) who are selling generators, let me assure you what we have been campaigning on, you have heard them say we don’t have structures.

“That is the structure we are trying to destroy. The structure of criminality is what I mentioned. Nigeria is being held captive and that structure is the structure that has impoverished Nigerians.

“We are going to turn around the power sector. Today Nigeria generates 5,000-6000 MW of electricity and South Africa the second largest economy with 60 million people generates about 40,000-50,000MW and South Africa in the last three months has declared an emergency on power and said you can generate 10MW without a license.

“I’m going to declare war on power and we will solve it and anybody who stands on the way, so be it.”

Recently, the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission accused big generator assemblers in the industry like Mikano, Jubaili Brothers and JMG of infringement of imports and manufacturing rules.

Due to power generation setbacks in transmission and distribution, the government relaxed some certain rules with getting alternative power.

The government eliminated duties on CDK knockdown parts while spare parts attract duties.

But some assemblers and generator sellers connive with companies to treat spare parts as knockdown parts.

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