Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED) has accused Raji Fashola, minister of Power, Works and Housing of spending $5.6 million to generate 1megawatt of electricity instead of $1.5 million proposed by power developers from the private sector.
ANED said this in a statement in response to Fashola’s accusation that the body was not known to the government and Sunday Oduntan, its spokesperson, was an interloper.
Raji Fashola, minister of Power, Works and Housing
Fashola had in a reaction to ANED on his initial press briefing giving directives to the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPP) and Nigeria Bulk Electricity Trading (NBET) Plc on the issue of power generation and metering, written a personally signed statement in which he lambasted the power distribution companies.
In its response to the Minister, ANED said Fashola was generating electricity through the Rural Electrification Agency at a higher cost than proposed.
It said even the $1.5 million proposed by the private sector electricity generators was described as too high by Fashola, only for $5.6 million to now be spent.
ANED said Nigerians were not getting value for taxpayers’ funds being channelled to misguided projects by the REA, Transmission Company of Nigeria and “friends” under the watch of the minister.
It said REA was currently implementing a three-megawatt power project valued at N5.2 billion or $5.6 million per megawatt in Sokoto and another two-megawatt plant in Anambra State valued at N4.04 billion or $2.02 million per megawatt from taxpayers’ funds.
ANED said: “Why is this remarkable? It is remarkable because the government has robustly challenged, as exorbitant, the proposed price of $1.5m/MW put forward by power developers from the private sector and sought a reduction of same.
