World Bank Offers Expanded Power Reform Support to Nigeria
SmartProInvesting.com, January 25, 2008
Obviously deeply concerned about the debilitating impact of the yawning power supply deficiency in Nigeria, the World Bank has offered to expand its support beyond funding. The bank is bundling in sector reform technical assistance to facilitate a speedy and accountable approach to tackling the problem. World Bank African Region Bank Vice president, Nigeria's Oby Ezekwesili, made this declaration while briefing newsmen at the end of here 5-day working visit to Nigeria. She confirmed the banks readiness to respond to Nigerian President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s invitation to the bank for assistance in reforming the sector.
The bank is concerned about the need for proper institutional mechanisms for effective coordination of the reform program as well as transparency and accountability in the process. She alluded to coordination problems that are already noticeable in current efforts where gas supply arrangements have not tied into power generation plans, leading to sub-optimisation: "if you generated 2,000 additional megawatts of power but did not think of the fact that the gas to power the 2000 will need to be available, these are the institutional and policy-related issues that the sector would need to tackle because if, out of the 2000 additional mw that was generated within that period, only 300 is activated, you can see clearly that it is a matter of getting the right policy steps".
The Nigerian economy has been under the heavy yoke of acute power supply deficiency. Though the country produces and even flares natural gas on a non-stop basis in its oil-production fields, this resource and others like abundant sunshine and water resources have not been harnessed to generate power. Much of the domestic and commercial consumption of power is from self-generation as businesses and individuals are forced to own power-generating units. The high cost of this option is clearly a major impediment to economic growth. It is believed that tackling this problem alone will be a huge boost to the economy and will brighten Nigeria's chances of meeting it's stated goal of becoming a major world economy.
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