Yemisi Izuora
Lagos State Government is set to announce a power sector intervention strategy that is targeting the Small and Medium Enterprises, SME’s to help in employment generation and economic development and growth.
Permanent Secretary in the ministry of energy and mineral resources, Abdulhameed Mustapha, who dropped the hint during the groundbreaking ceremony of Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN reconductering project at the Ikeja West subregion, in Ipaja-Ayobo, said the state government is making SME’s development its priority and is strengthening its intervention in the power sector with the view to enhancing their productivity.
“For this project we will do everything possible to minimize delay in its execution because already we have distribution challenges in the state. We have put in place a dedicated team to liaise with you and we will ensure issues around Right-Of-Way, ROW, is resolved immediately” he said.
The Permanent Secretary emphasized that a lack of a consistent access to reliable power costs businesses and the economy as a whole, noting that even with access to energy, unreliable power makes operating a business even more challenging than usual.
He observed that Nigerian business and manufacturing enterprises experience power outages and as such result, firms lose sales revenues in the informal sector, adding that where back-up generators are limited, losses can be as higher.
These losses have severe consequences for the health and growth of the wider economy, not to mention the dramatic impact in achieving other development objectives of government, he said.
In his speech, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, of the TCN, Gur Mohammed, said that on completion the facility which currently has wheeling capacity of about 200 megawatts, MW, will be handle about 500 MW, and will guarantee steady power supply to industries in the area.
The choice of Ikeja West to kickoff the initiative is that the axis has highest industry concentration in Nigeria and sustainable electricity supply along the route will stimulate economic activities.