Approximately 70 per cent of Nigerian households, including Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), have less than four hours of electricity per day, the Managing Director of Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCo), Mr. Bayo Ojulari, has said.
Speaking during a presentation at the recently concluded 2019 Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) Oloibiri Lecture Series and Energy Forum in Abuja, Mr. Ojulari blamed the supply gap on the fact that 70 per cent of the country’s installed generation capacity was lost before it reached the customers.
The SNEPCo boss’ statistics seemed to differ remarkably from that of the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, who recently claimed that some cities in Nigeria now boasted of constant power supply on the back of rising generation capacity.
Mr. Ojulari who spoke on the topic: “Nigeria’s Energy Security: Opportunities, Present Threats and Key Solution Pointers”, said the installed capacity losses were primarily driven by ageing equipment, maintenance systems and culture, as well as insufficient funding.
He added that the energy gap in Nigeria was the foundation for so many of the country’s economic and social development problems like health, education, insecurity, agriculture, unemployment and food security.
He noted that Nigeria’s access to electricity challenges, however, presented significant opportunity for impact.
He further said the country would need between 30 to 175GW (Gigawatt) of electricity at a cost of between $40 to $200bn to address the energy gap.
