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If the projection of the World Bank is anything to take seriously, Nigerian businesses may have lost nothing less than $232 billion (N96.4 trillion) in the last eight years that the Federal Government and operators in the sector dilly-dally on making it perform.
Late President Umar Musa Yar’Adua dreamt of fixing Nigeria’s power and energy sector by 2020.
Elected in 2007, Mr Yar’Adua planned to carry out infrastructural and institutional reforms in the sector but died three years into his tenure in 2010. However, 11 years after his death, Nigeria is still grappling with erratic power supply.
“In the first six months, it will be power and energy. That is what is so critical, and I have said publicly that I will declare the sector a national emergency because almost all the other sectors of our economic and social life, in trying to develop a modern nation, depend on it,” the late president said in an interview with The News shortly after his victory at the poll.
By Emmanuel Addeh
The World Bank has said that Nigeriansâ faith in the power sector can only be boosted when they see visible results from ongoing reforms in the country.
The Bankâs Practice Manager, West and Central Africa Energy, Ashish Khanna, who stated this during an interactive session with journalists in Abuja, however stated that the challenge of credibility in the sector was not only a Nigerian problem.
âPeople are really struggling on what to believe in the power sector reforms, although Nigeria is not alone.
âWhat we are seeing internationally is that the trust and credibility often come when there’s a carefully drafted integrated vision for the sector and there are actual delivery of results that people really want to see,â he stated.