Edo to generate 1,000mw of electricity in four years

Tasks communities on security
The Edo State government, in collaboration with Siemens AG, has planned to generate 1,000 megawatts of electricity.

This, according to it, would complement the expected power from Azura, Osiomon and UNIBEN power plants in the state.

Governor Godwin Obaseki, who spoke at a stakeholders’ forum aimed at identifying the challenges in the power sector of the country and proffering solutions to them, tasked the stakeholders to provide answers to how the state could avoid the limitations of the past and learn from the experiences of other states and power developers, especially in the area of access to adequate gas supply.

He also urged them to identify the challenges and solutions of revenue recovery to investors and developers, explore how the state could engage the federal agencies in developing Independent Power Projects (IPPs) for the state, and to also highlight the most optimal financing options available to stakeholders.

Also, the governor restated his commitment to ensuring that the state generates a quarter of the country’s power supply, especially given the strategic geographical location and position of the state in the transmission network and supply of gas resources.

However, Siemens AG’s Head of Operations in Edo State, Onyeche Tiffase, said that the forum was pursuant to a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed with Siemens and the establishment of a joint development committee to generate 1,000 megawatts of electricity over the next four years to complement ongoing investments in the power sector in Edo State.

But Managing Director of Benin Distribution Company (BEDC), Mrs. Funke Osibodu, said that out of Nigeria’s power supply alternating between 3,000mw and 3,700mw, roughly nine per cent of that was supplied to Edo State.

She, however, noted that the state needed a supply of at least 500mw, but that it also had the capacity to distribute 1,800mw because the necessary facilities to accomplish that, including transformers, were already in place.

In another development, the Edo State government has called on communities to strengthen their vigilance groups to complement the efforts of security agencies to curb the menace of killer-herdsmen and kidnappers.

The Deputy Governor, Philip Shaibu, stated this while addressing elders and people of the agrarian community in Elele-Uzairue in Etsako West Local Council over the brutal murder of a pregnant woman and mother of seven, Mrs. Magdalene Wilson Tunner, by armed men suspected to be Fulani herdsmen.

He also said the government had resolved to crush any person or group of persons that poses threat to undermine its agricultural revolution policy.

The deputy governor said no stone would be left unturned in fishing out the perpetrators of the dastardly act, adding that the community should be at alert and be wary of people they keep as friends. He urged them not to hesitate to report any strange person in their midst to law enforcement agencies.