There is hope on the horizon for electricity improvement in the country as the Federal Government is set to inaugurate the Zungeru and Kashimbila Hydro Power projects by December 2021.

Minister of Power, Abubakar Aliyu, stated this when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Power, headed by Senator Gabriel Suswam to defend his ministry’s 2022 budget estimates.

The Minister, however, explained that lack of adequate rainfall this year to power the turbines could prevent it from supplying the projected 700 megawatts of electricity after its inauguration.

He also said the growing insecurity challenges in Niger State could prevent the inauguration of the multi-billion naira project when completed in December.

Mr Aliyu stressed that the workers who would operate the power project could only relocate to the site and live there if their security were guaranteed.

“Perhaps the inauguration could be extended to one or two months into 2022. I, however, told them that we would stick to the December deadline. So, we are still working with the December deadline.”

The Minister also said that the 40 megawatts Kashimbila power project would start operation after its inauguration in the second week of December 2021.

He said the Federal Government had paid the N10bn owed contractors and that everything was in place for the takeoff.

On the Mabilla power project, the Minister said the project was stalled because of legal issues which the Minister of Justice, Mr Abubakar Malami, was currently handling.

He said: “The problem with the take-off of the Mabilla power project is the legal issues surrounding it which the Minister of Justice is currently handling.

“It is only the Minister of Justice that can speak on such high profile legal case.

“We have scheduled the Zungeru hydropower project for inauguration in December 2021. We have met with the contractors recently and they are looking at December, not on the horizon.

“We have challenges of security. They needed certain numbers of security but they are only able to get half of the number they needed.

“They wanted the military to complement the shortfall so that the workers can stay and work on shifts and sleep there. As of now, the workers are not there because of insecurity.

“Another challenge is that we don’t have the minimum amount of water to power the turbines because there was no adequate rainfall this year and the hydro dam needs flood to come up and fill up the reservoir. There is a minimum level of water needed to turn the turbines.”

The Minister nevertheless said the Ministry in collaboration with the relevant government agencies, was working hard to address the challenges.

The Zungeru hydropower project is a 700MW hydroelectric facility being built with Chinese assistance on the upper and middle reaches of the Kaduna River in the Niger State.

The Kashimbila Multipurpose Dam project was initially designed with an installed capacity of 18MW, however, following the detailed hydrological modelling and yield analysis carried out by Aurecon, a 40MW installed capacity was recommended and implemented.

The multipurpose dam would also have the capacity to generate electricity, and a water treatment plant capable of supplying 60,000 cubic meters of water to about 400,000 people, an irrigation facility of about 2,000 hectares and an airstrip.

A total of N75.46 was allocated to the Ministry of Power in the 2022 budget proposal of which N74 billion was earmarked for Capital expenditure, N249 million for Overhead and a sum of N984 million is for Personnel cost.

The Minister assured the committee that an arrangement has been put in place to implement the budget to the satisfaction of Nigerians.

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