The government should obviously regulate the electricity sector because of greed in Nigeria. It shouldn't be that you loose an arm and a leg to get electricity. If we can have a friendly environment and a detailed maintenance program for solar, coal and nuclear energy then the government should go for it. The government should think from the bottom up ie beginning with coal, then to solar, and then nuclear cuz naija stands a chance of energizing every state and neighboring country.

royalicon:

NO COMMENT PLS.

When it comes to electricity, am ashame of being a Nigerian,

You know why we have this electricity problem? It's because of the name- Nigeria

It's crazy, but me thinks this is the reason!

The meaning of the name "Nigeria" is BLACK AREA!!

The latin word for black is "Niger" and we all know that "ria" stands 4 area.

So maybe we should change our name, it might solve the problem overnight!

PapaBrowne, you just insulted the whole sanity being displayed here.

Funny though

There are so many things wrong with our electricity problem, it is the reality of the fact that Nigeria is a failed state and as long as we still maintain an all powerful Federal government system of government, we still have a long way to go.
The federal government should focus on control and regulation and allow states to compete among themselves to provide the needs of its inhabitants. You will not tell me that Lagos state will go for launch of a 10 years perishable unutilized space satelite where there is no light for lagosians, no, they will not. Our powerful federal government have made it possible for 30 something states to wallop in darkness caused by an incompetent president where as we have 38 governors that can never go wrong at the same time and once one gets it right, others will definitely copy and compete.
The reason why states are reluctant to go into this energy issue is because it will definitely come down to oil spectacle where other states are the producers with nothing to show for it and other states are enjoying the benefits.
Communism doesn't thrive with capitalism, our traditional African communal nature have made it impossible for us to see that competition and aspirations is the only path to success. Kano is no longer with the groundnut pyramids because at the end of the month crude money will come in from the Niger delta. How would they aspire to get the groundnut pyramids back when they can make more without even breaking a rock.
We are fond of building castles in the air, I will watch and easy the cables and transformers the electricity is going to go through, that is after we have achieved that much megawatts.
A state will not allow its infrastructures to detoriarate where other states are maintaining there own and making money from them. We are all doomed, excess crude sharing, excess crude account, excess income sharing and all sharing are terms of a failed all powerful federal government. WHAT HAPPENED TO DERIVATION THAT BRINGS ABOUT COMPETITION.
States without roads have lots of cars, those with the best roads has no one driving in them. Can't we see that we will continue getting this wrong.

Read this abstract from an article i came accross today. The article is quite long but i took out the part that stands out the most.



This is the headline of the investigation report of Omoh Gabriel and Hector Igbikiowubo. The following are the details of their report.

"Nigerians spend about N16.408 Trillion annually on fuelling generators in the country. The break down shows that in the telecom sector, N6.7 Trillion is spent per annum to purchase diesel while filling stations spend N43.98 billion; factories N191.08 billion; banks N11.7 billion; insurance companies N80 billion; residential N7.812 trillion; and commercial enterprises, N1.57 trillion giving a total of 16,408,760 trillion or $140 billion expended on fuelling generators in the country annually."

The above does not include expenditures on labour, repairs and the impact on the environment and thus the health of the citizenry.

When the above are added, we see that the Generator Economy is the real Power Economy and that NEPA is its sub-sector. The report continues:

"Owing to paucity of data from the Customs and Excise department, the Federal Office of Statistics, PHCN, the Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON) and other government agencies visited, Financial Vanguard discovered that generating sets utilized by this category of consumer range from 0.8KVA to 500KVA, depending on how many consumers it is meant to serve.

It was projected that most of those who have recourse to use generating sets are mostly urban dwellers and a few others in the rural areas.

This amount to 300,000,000 litres of petrol per day and at current pump price of N70 per litre, N21 billion per day, N651 billion per month, N7,812 trillion or $66,769 billion per annum.

Investigations revealed that there may be about five million commercial enterprises operating in the country including barber shops, hair dressing, salons, restaurants, super markets, boutiques, block moulding factories, recording studios, dry cleaning services, night clubs, casinos, offices etc utilizing an average of eight litres of petrol per day on different capacity of generating sets.

This translates to 40 million litres of petrol per day or 1.24 billion litres of petrol per month or 14.88 billion litres per annum. At current pump price, this translates to N1.57trillion or $13.35 billion expenditures per annum. However this does not include the cost of oil change, spare parts and labour."


Although there is need to reconcile these different figures given as the annual expenditures on fuel - N16.408 trillion or N7.812 trillion or N1.57 trillion, Gabriel and Igbikiowubo do show us how to go about quantifying the costs of fuelling generating sets in the country.

When the costs of these generators and NEPA bills are added we begin to appreciate the cost of energy to those who cannot work without it.

More importantly we begin to appreciate the contribution of the import of generators to the economy of the exporting countries.

Why do we describe the Generator Economy both domestic and international as a disguise of Corruption? Because it is the effect of the decision to structure the supply of power in Nigeria in a manner that guarantees the sustainability of the Generator Economy.

abbstract from http://allafrica.com/stories/200805060447.html?page=1

This is the main reason why I am for Nigerians going over to solar in the mean time. Imagine all the pollution from all that. Many of these businesses can comfortably switch over to using renewable sources, considering how much they currently have for energy budget in just one year. Even Nigerians who own generators can switch over years to solar panels and benefit more from that than from continued use of generators which not only pollute the environment but also flush trillions down the drain each year.

Yes pollution is an issue but it is not what shocked me. Certain people in that country have profited from the chaos in so many ways. $140BILLION for crying out loud. That is disgusting and gives corruption a new name. That is just, i am utterly speechless. And this is one of the reasons why when people come here to praise the current government for not stealing i get frustrated. People are earning mega ammounts of money from all this chaos and to the detriment of everyone else and the economy of the country and the future, growth and prosperity of the country. We have no working refinery so we have to import fuel. NO WORKING REFINERY IN THE COUNTRY THAT IS THE LARGEST EXPORTER OF CRUDE OIL IN AFRICA. Wasn't Obasanjo's son gaining from importing fuel in the last administration? Pure wickedness.

NA SO SO STORY FULL THIS COUNTRY NIGERIA.

This is one of the reasons I am always reluctant to enter into any discourse concerning Nigeria and its situation. Inside of me , I feel just plain useless with all these talks , argument and counter argument cos I know it leads nowhere. Our leaders are not dumb. They know what to do to get this country up on its feet. But they just sacrificed all that on the altar of selfishness. As far as the insanity and chaos in Nigeria is making them rich, they would never want to change that.

Uche2nna:


This is one of the reasons I am always reluctant to enter into any discourse concerning Nigeria and its situation. Inside of me , I feel just plain useless with all these talks , argument and counter argument because I know it leads nowhere. Our leaders are not dumb. They know what to do to get this country up on its feet. But they just sacrificed all that on the altar of selfishness. As far as the insanity and chaos in Nigeria is making them rich, they would never want to change that.

Hear! Hear!!

I reserve my plenty comments, But can the electricity be available!!! We are ready to pay more as long as it is available,

The problem is that nothing works in Nigeria because there is corruption everywhere. Whatever idea or solution any government is bringing in is for them to get something in there pockets and not in the interest of this country. We should just be prayerful and mind our businesses.

THE SOLUTION


'MYTO'll Encourage Investors, Correct Pricing Of Electricity'
Last week, the Federal Executive Council approved a new tariff regime for the nation's power sector, the multi-year tariff order (MYTO) introduced by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Agency (NERC). Prior to that, NERC Chairman, Dr. Ransom Owan and other members of the power sector regulatory agency have been sensitising key stakeholders on the make up of the new arrangement. ASSISTANT BUSINESS EDITOR Bassey Udo attended one of the sessions held in Lagos. Excerpts:

How did NERC arrive at MYTO?

We have been working on MYTO since November 2005 to determine what is the correct pricing policy for electricity. As a commission, NERC has four areas of its mission. How do we provide adequate electricity for Nigerians? How do we make electricity safer for our use? How do we improve reliability of power supply? How do we encourage affordability?

In 2005, PHCN submitted a request for increase in electricity rate by 60 percent. It was rejected, because with the sector regulator in place, the proper way to do it was not to take consumers by surprise.

The way forward is to give NERC a chance to review all the methodology for determining all the revenue for the sector. What is it that is actually needed to run the sector? And given any level of output of power, what is it that would be needed to support it, before one begins to talk about correct or appropriate pricing?

It has taken two years since then. But, we have reached that point that one can discuss the issue of correct pricing of electricity.

What does that mean to both the consumer and those who wish to come and manufacture and sell electricity?

But, the difference was that government did not quite care how much it actually cost to make electricity available to the people, so that even if the operators were to give a budget on what is actually needed in a year to provide electricity, they would simply have given a little money for them to go and manage.

That is why most of the operators are just managing to pay a small fraction of their operating cost. That is, they have been running a deficit in perpetuity. If one says the private sector should come in and one is not ready to support their coming in, how can they produce power?

The issue of correct pricing is faced by all utility industry regulators the world over. It is not only in Nigeria. Whether in pricing telephone, cable services, water service, electricity, natural gas, the question is: What is the correct pricing for all those utility commodities?

Power generation began way back in 1929 when NESCO began producing power from tin mines in Jos to even a larger population of the people. It was not as if one could produce, make money and support the system. But, when there is misallocation between what is needed and what is given, one cannot perform a miracle.

Electricity is like building a bridge, once one begins building it, if one does not complete it, no vehicle would go through. So, when one begins a power project, one must continue until it is finished. Electricity is something everybody needs, but nobody wants to talk about the cost. In the past, it was a case of one making a proposal to the President and in one meeting a tariff increase is signed. Consumers would not even be told. The next thing one knows is the discovery that the tariff has increased. Everyone thought it was a sensitive subject. But, NERC aims at changing that, and that is why we came about MYTO.

Is MYTO going to be different from the arbitrary price fixing era?

The way the nation had gone in pricing power had been for the price to be fixed, and because it is government-owned it would continue to be subsidised.

So, today 45,000 employees of PHCN are all owned by government, which also owns generation of electricity, transmission and distribution. Though it has now been broken into 18 companies, because those companies have not actually changed hands to commercial sector, they are still owned by federal government. The price that consumers pay today for power had been fixed since February 2002 at an average of N6 per kilowatt-hour.

In any business that one is into, one needs to determine profit, which is made up of what is the fixed price multiplied by the quantity sold. When one gets that, one begins to determine what the revenue would be.

But, in Nigeria today, because price for electricity had been fixed, nobody bothers to find out about a couple of things, if the price goes up.

Usually, the producer can hold the quantity, to drive the price, or they may not be able to carry out maintenance, because the revenue is not coming in, and the quality of service would be reduced. That is precisely what has been happening in the nation's power sector. Because everything had been fixed for so long, PHCN was not getting enough money to operate efficiently.

To make matters worse, electricity sector is an increasing cost industry. One cannot say the more one produces, the lesser the price, according to economy of scale. For electricity, the more one produces, the more people hire and other costs incurred.

So, because it is an increasing cost and declining revenue industry, what one would have is a deficit. This gap has been ignored in the nation's power industry for all these years.

We now have a situation where government decides to open up the business and change the way these things are done. And in 2005, government agreed that public-private partnership (PPP) is needed to bring investors into the sector.

To create the legal framework, government brought the Electricity Act in 2005. It formed a regulator (NERC), with a mandate to attract businesses to help develop the system.

NERC has attracted over 20 private/independent power producers so far, who are ready to produce over 10,000 mega watts (MW) of electricity. But, they have not yet moved their projects to conclusion, because they are still asking the questions about the price of power. What happens, since PHCN is very weak in terms of revenue? If they produce power and consumers refuse to pay, because there is no money, who is going to back them up?

They are saying: If answers are given to these questions, they can go to the banks, bring their projects to financial closure and actually order the operational equipment. So, the key question the financiers of power projects are asking is for the power producers to show the price they would sell their commodity to recover money to repay their loans.

Gas is a major component of power production, with electricity using more than 80 percent of the volume. The recent decision to gazette the pricing policy for gas in the country is a good development. This has been a major issue. At least one would know what the price would be in the next several years.

To find a way out of this problem of appropriate pricing for electricity, NERC was empowered to look at the various ways to price electricity in the country. The law says if NERC selects any method, it should be gazetted for the public to see; leave it for 30 days and get public comments. If the public is okay with it, the method could be adopted for the country and then begin to work with the numbers.

So, last year NERC published the gazette on the multi-year tariff order (MYTO).

The other methods, such as cost of service study (CSS); locational marginal pricing (LMP), which makes a preferential customer in Lagos, Sokoto, Kaduna or Calabar to pay the same price of electricity, regardless of where he is coming from.

The national policy says there should be uniform pricing for electricity across the country. Elsewhere, electricity is priced depending on how close one is to the location of supply, that the closer one is to the supply, the lesser one pays for electricity, because there are less line losses. But, in Nigeria, every consumer is put in the same spot and come up with average pricing.

So, the only way out of the situation was the MYTO, which is an instrument that allows the total revenue required for electricity production to be captured throughout the country, whether it is government or private sector.

With the data, one would say on the average, whether one's power plant is located in Lagos, or anywhere, what is the average cost in terms of the transmission and distribution network, cost of equipment, the retirement plan and the number of workers?

Once the total revenue that is required is understood, one would know the level of electricity to be produced for the year. If the total revenue is divided by the volume of electricity to be produced for the year, one would get the unit price, all things being equal.

If the volume increases by next year, that would also be divided by the revenue, and so on every year.

What happens if people do not perform, to give the revenue figure for the year?

Under MYTO, a regime of incentives, benchmarks and targets have been built in, so that when things change, operators would not become wary about it. Today, the nation's power sector is full of losses or leakages through illegal connections, stealing or refusal by consumers to pay their electricity bills.

As at September last year consumers of electricity were owing PHCN over N90billion in unsettled electricity bills. Residential and commercial customers owe about N71billion. The rest are parastatals and government agencies as well as security services.

So, we do not have a perfect system. We have to allow some losses, but it should be declining over the years. Therefore, NERC had to capture what are technical and non-technical losses. But, the methodology NERC is using is very transparent. NERC met with all operators, be it PHCN or the new IPPs, National Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Unions, NACCIMA, MAN, and other stakeholders to consult with them on what is being done for us to be able to address the question of correct pricing for electricity.

Everybody is saying: Give us power and we will pay the price. But, NERC is saying: Let us address the two issues at the same time, because if one is asking for power first, before the price, the person who is coming to build the power plant would say that the bank they would take the loan are asking for the price it would charge before lending the money. It is a chicken and egg situation. But, NERC has decided to tackle the two issues together at the same time through MYTO.

How would MYTO work?

Because the revenue is subject to leakages, it is either government continues to fund the sector 100percent in perpetuity, or a way could be found to allow the private sector come in. In business, one cannot suffer losses in perpetuity. At some point one has to cut the losses. But, one would still need to find a way to allow producers, suppliers and consumers benefit.

NERC believes that if these problems are put out, MYTO will help the process of power generation in the long run. The process of setting tariff gives room for the next 15 years to look at prices, which is good for operators, since it takes 3-4 years to construct the power plants and another 10-12 years to recover the debt and equity put in to construct the plants.

So, when one is talking about 15 years, the producer would need to see ahead, so that they can do their cash flow analysis. On annual basis, they take into account issues like inflation, foreign exchange rate and other things they do not have control over. This will allow them to forecast and set a ceiling in the wholesale price. That will also take care of the point that anybody coming to the country to generate electricity would not need to know anybody in government to know the price.

Everybody is a price-taker, which is used to work into the financial analysis to ensure that one does not charge more than the approved price. The model is driven by what is called efficient technology, which is a gas turbine simple open cycle, because everybody know how much it would cost to build the same plant.

In other places of the world, it would cost about $400-$500 per mega watt. But in Nigeria, the operators are allowed over $800. There is at least $300 head room for the operators to be more efficient in their services, considering certain peculiarities of our country, especially where these power plants are going to be located.

Sometimes the sponsors have to put in place the pipelines to bring the gas themselves. They have to pay compensation to land owners and communities where the projects are to be sited. If one is building a power plant in the Niger Delta, reclaiming the land alone by sand filling and preparing the ground for foundation laying, takes quite some time and resources.

NERC believes that MYTO will encourage investors, including the licensed independent power producers, to go ahead with the execution of the power projects.

How would the consumer fair under MYTO?

As one would be aware, the Presidency constituted the committee on accelerated power generation, to supply about 6,000MW of electricity within the next 18 months. The committee has been doing the due diligence on how to help the present administration realise its aspiration to produce 10-15,000MW during the first term. The data so far gathered have been plotted into the tariff scheme after making two propositions.

One, that the regulator needs to announce MYTO so that investors can make their financial and investment decisions; two, that having taken the pulse of consumers, if electricity prices are increased today, people are going to be very unhappy, because the level of electricity supply is still very low.

The best approach was for NERC to look t electricity prices and march that with when power will be stabilised, and then begin to reflect minimal increases.

In doing this, NERC proposed that one thing that cannot be compromised is covering the revenue required each year to make the sector viable.

But, to achieve this objective without government support, because though government has been subsidising the power sector 100 percent, no one seems to know where the money is going.

In line with this, NERC announced a new tariff structure that would take effect from July 1, this year, though the freezing of prices that have been in existence since 2002 will continue until July 2009. That will give the Federal Government some time to improve the level of power generation and supply beyond 4,000MW this year to close to 5,000MW by year end and 6,000MW next year. But, NERC has asked government for some subsidy to cover the shortfall in revenue as a result of the continued charge of the old tariff regime.

For the first time, government is being shown what it takes to run the power sector, though NERC is sensitive of the fact that with lack of power, if we increase prices this year and power is still not available, nobody will like it.

But, the investors need to know up to five years and beyond what the path is for prices, so that they can make their investment decisions that will take between 3 and 5 years. So, even operators with license, their plants are not going to come on stream immediately. It might take them 3 or more years. But, at least it would have given them some comfort to know, by the time their power is coming on line, what is likely going to be the price, subject to the correlations with inflation, fuel and other issues they do not have control over.

In return, NERC asked government for approval to create the Electricity Equalisation Fund (EEF) for the next three years, under which government will fund the first year 100percent, considering that there has been no increase in tariffs. At 4,000MW, whatever the shortfall is, in terms of the leakages, loses and everything else, the price will remain unchanged, while concentrating effort on fixing the system to stabilize the power supply.

Next year, July 1, 2009, the price will be topped up with about N1, raising it to N7, though the actual price would have been over N11. The following year, it would be raised to over N8, and then year 4 and 5, N10 on the average from the initial N6. That is what is called moving to correct pricing of electricity.

What happens with the equalisation fund?

The fund will be for three years, which will be declining by the third year and no more henceforth. After three years, government will not be throwing money into a black hole. It will pay the difference between what the consumer can pay and what is being lost through other systems, though within those three years, there would be a whole roll out of prepayment meters, repair line losses, set up better systems in revenue collection and step up the level of efficiency in providing more electricity. So, the more power availability is increased, revenue would go up and government support will go down.

Once the equalisation fund is approved by the Federal Executive Council, NERC believes that it would give comfort to both the consumer and investor, because government is not distinguishing between government-owned power plants and the joint venture companies. Whether one has a prototype agreement everybody needs to be paid. Government money is not free. Even when the 11 government-owned power plants are completed, MYTO would recover them, because government can use the money to build roads, hospitals, etc. Therefore, there must be a reasonable rate of return on investment and cost recovery as stated in our law.

How would MYTO take care of the interest of the poor?

There is a provision that takes care of the interest of the poor, though the suspicion is that its implementation would encourage fraud. But, NERC has proposed that the implementation would be later. Since prices are to be saved in the next one year, the period could be used to put final touches on the power consumer assistance fund, which is identified in the law.

There is a provision that calls for the setting aside of a certain amount of money to pay for the poor. It also calls for the Federal Government to contribute by going to the National Assembly to ask for appropriation for that purpose.

NERC will go ahead to design it and try to identify under residential customers - R1, R2, R3, R4 and R5 - who they are. Whether government says the first 50units of electricity is free to the consumer, because even where one is consuming low now, when power becomes more available, the consumption will increase. Therefore, if government does not do something, the poor will get poorer, and might just drop off and return to using firewood and kerosene, which is where NERC does not want to go. This happens in every society, where the poor are given subsidy to survive.

The power distribution companies would supply those classes of consumers identified as legible and the first units of electricity approved for that purpose will go to them, and when the bill for their consumption comes, they can go to the fund to draw money to settle it. The objective is to ensure that everybody who works in the system - GENCOs, TRANSCOs and DISCOs - gets paid.

Blu Malam:

I think we should give Yar'adua a chance because the proposal sounds logical. Which power corporation will invest in a

country where tariffs do not commensurate with the huge capital expended? NOT to talk of the mentality of the average

nigerian who prefers an illegal connection to paying a bill. We should appreciate the fact that presido, unlike his

predecessors, is interested in new ways to fight an old problem. Shikena.

Are you Yar'adua in disguise?!lol

@ this point guys just want light in their houses. Abi. Just give us the electric! We'll pay!!

Same ni.

Kobojunkie:

This is the main reason why I am for Nigerians going over to solar in the mean time. Imagine all the pollution from all that. Many of these businesses can comfortably switch over to using renewable sources, considering how much they currently have for energy budget in just one year. Even Nigerians who own generators can switch over years to solar panels and benefit more from that than from continued use of generators which not only pollute the environment but also flush trillions down the drain each year.

Good talk man.
But initial cost of installation is said to be very high.
For me, it would have made better sense if Mr. President subsidises the cost of solar panel so Nigerians can individually generate power for themselves, not subsidising tariff of a commodity that is non-existing(electrcity in Nigeria).

While Solar might be a viable alternative, i really don't believe it should be the focus at all, not at this point anyway. All these renewable sources, wind, solar, tidal, etc. They should only be supplements at this stage but nevertheless viable supplements to the main energy grid. We keep on hearing of gas flaring. The gas in the Niger Delta is enough to power Nigeria and yet till this day nothing has been done about it and it is still being flared and wasted.

When govt. pay workers that are non-existing, everybody scream 'ghost workers! ghost workers!!'
What shall we scream now, that govt. will be paying for electricity that is non-existing
Who will they be paying to?

Sky Blue:

While Solar might be a viable alternative, i really don't believe it should be the focus at all, not at this point anyway. All these renewable sources, wind, solar, tidal, etc. They should only be supplements at this stage but nevertheless viable supplements to the main energy grid. We keep on hearing of gas flaring. The gas in the Niger Delta is enough to power Nigeria and yet till this day nothing has been done about it and it is still being flared and wasted.

Bros, this gas flaring thing is sickening. We don"t have a govt. with sincerity of purpose. This year 2008 was the deadline for gas flaring, behold they are about singing a new song. You talked of using our gas to generate power, that's a very lofty idea for our govt., when you compare it with the small challange of bottling this same gas for cooking.
In 9ja, a 12.5 kg of cooking gas went to as high as NGN5000.oo

@ufofex even if gas which we have abundance off is not used to generate power for all of Nigeria, it can at least be used to generate power for Rivers state, Bayelsa and even a couple more states. I still believe governors should take the initiative to generate power for their respective states. Enugu was already thinking of using their coal, good for them. With such an incompetent government that lacks the will or purpose (so it seems) then the only hope right now is individual governors that have this will and purpose. Unfortunately not all governors, not even half seem to have this will or purpose. So the ones that do should do it, generate more revenue for their states. While the idiots that fail to see past their belly can see how beneficial it is to the economy and to everyone in general except corrupt NEPA.

I knew i had seen this in some places but did not want to post without a source.


Lagos to Generate Electricity from Wind
05.08.2008

Lagos State Government on Wednesday revealed that it was exploring the possibility of using wind energy and small hydro power systems to combat the recurrent problem of erratic power supply in its rural areas.
The Commissioner for Rural Development, Prince Lanre Balogun, who disclosed this while addressing the press at Alausa added that the government was also going to explore solar energy and on –site-power generating system.
He explained that this has become imperative because of the high cost of connecting several rural communities in the state to the national grid.
Balogun also informed that the state government has also provided 44 oil immense transformers of 500KVA each to various communities within the state up till the end 2007.
The ministry also provided watercraft and motorcycles to 10 riverine communities on the other side of River Oshun by Igbonla area to ease their transportation problem, the Commissioner added.
Prince Balogun also informed that the state government has initiated a rural transport scheme called the Lagos Rural Transportation Initiative (LARUTI) which would ensure the manufacture of tricycle that safely convey people and goods from the rural areas to urban centres,
The commissioner also disclosed that the ministry had employed additional 1, 500 Neighbourhood Watchers and equipped them with necessary equipment to enhance its grassroots security service.
He listed the equipment provided to the neighbourhood watchers to include: 73 patrol vehicles for state officers and coordinators and 201 motorcycles to its field officers to gather information from the grassroots. He also stated that 50 artisans were trained by experts from Thailand on the production of exportable arts, crafts and house hold furniture that would entail the use of fibre from water hyacinth, banana peels, sisal, coconut leaves, bamboo, cane, willow and raffia, he said.

http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=110861

Sky Blue:

I knew i had seen this in some places but did not want to post without a source.


Lagos to Generate Electricity from Wind
05.08.2008

Lagos State Government on Wednesday revealed that it was exploring the possibility of using wind energy and small hydro power systems to combat the recurrent problem of erratic power supply in its rural areas.
The Commissioner for Rural Development, Prince Lanre Balogun, who disclosed this while addressing the press at Alausa added that the government was also going to explore solar energy and on –site-power generating system.
He explained that this has become imperative because of the high cost of connecting several rural communities in the state to the national grid.
Balogun also informed that the state government has also provided 44 oil immense transformers of 500KVA each to various communities within the state up till the end 2007.
The ministry also provided watercraft and motorcycles to 10 riverine communities on the other side of River Oshun by Igbonla area to ease their transportation problem, the Commissioner added.
Prince Balogun also informed that the state government has initiated a rural transport scheme called the Lagos Rural Transportation Initiative (LARUTI) which would ensure the manufacture of tricycle that safely convey people and goods from the rural areas to urban centres,
The commissioner also disclosed that the ministry had employed additional 1, 500 Neighbourhood Watchers and equipped them with necessary equipment to enhance its grassroots security service.
He listed the equipment provided to the neighbourhood watchers to include: 73 patrol vehicles for state officers and coordinators and 201 motorcycles to its field officers to gather information from the grassroots. He also stated that 50 artisans were trained by experts from Thailand on the production of exportable arts, crafts and house hold furniture that would entail the use of fibre from water hyacinth, banana peels, sisal, coconut leaves, bamboo, cane, willow and raffia, he said.

http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=110861

Na so so mouth dem just get

Wind dis! solar dat!! biodiesel dem!!

Raji Rasaki come,e talk am

Shagari come, e talk am

Let them do it first and we would see!

Tori get K-LEG!!

@dee02. Your scepticism is completely and utterly understood and Nigerians do have valid reasons to be sceptical given the history of governance we have. However i did not post that story to coclude that this would be done, but given that the current government of lagos is already delivering on some of its promises and developing on the rest and given that this same government seems to be run and lead by intelligent people who understand the situation in lagos and seem to have a genuine interest in developing the state given what they have accomplished so far and the ground work being laid, i am inclined to at least take them seriously. If this was announced for somewher like port harcourt i wouldn't even have bothered.

All the argument won't do any good. We just want electricity period.

I care less who provides it. I might not be a maths professor, but the little arithmetic makes me understand that running a small business with generator is no good.

There is no analysis that will justify the exorbitant price Nigerians are already paying for electricity. Everyday, a 2kva generator being use to run the office consumes N2,000 naira worth of Petrol. That is a whooping N48,000 in a month.

I doubt if any private enterprise will be able to charge such amount. If the charges are exorbitant, more investor will rush in to invest in the sector, then demand and supply will force the price to come to a bearable figure.

So, the bottom line is, whatever Aso Rock, is up to, they should simply give us ELECTRICITY!

Heard the new tariff will take effect in three years time(as the FG will take care of the differential from the status quo till then),
however to be talking of new tariff for electricity that is epileptic at best is the hallmark of insensitivity and lack of focus

Na wa for Naija people o ! Do you have a better idea than Yaradua does ? Why not tell the world about it at this new web site ; www.rateoga.com

;d

Shame on u Yar'Adua

[b]Yar'Adua has contracted the Obasanjo disease; he has spent a do-nothing year at Nigerians' expense. Leaders who know their left from their right can make a difference in one year. Yar'Adua can hardly take credit for

1) "tarring" one mile of road
2) adding any wattage to the national grid,
3) boosting the morale of the nation's underpaid academics,
4)rejuvenating teaching and research in polytechnics and universities.
5) lower the un-employment rate
6) failed to prosecute corrupt ex-leaders
7) unable to provide ways to secure lives and properties

You'd think that a man dogged by serious health problems would wish to improve the state of Nigerian hospitals. Not Yar'Adua, who appears oblivious to the shame of having to be flown to Germany each time he has a serious health risk.

All they do is approve contracts which doesnt get done, fly abroad for treatments, make lofty promises which are never fulfilled, sit down on leather couches in aso rock and approve tarriffs, what a joke![/b][color=#990000][/color]