Posted by By Ihuoma Chiedozie, Abuja on
The National Economic Council has approved the release of N1.2trillion ($10.24billion) from the Excess Crude Account.
The National Economic Council has approved the release of N1.2trillion ($10.24billion) from the Excess Crude Account.
The council, at its meeting in Abuja on Thursday, agreed that out of the amount, N628.29bn would be invested in the power sector.
The balance of N569.79bn will be shared by the states and local government councils.
It also approved President Umaru Yar‘Adua‘s plan to declare an emergency in the power sector in July.
Yar‘Adua, who is not a member of the NEC, attended the special session devoted to the power sector.
A committee headed by Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan was also established to monitor further investment in the sector.
Members of the committee include governors Olusegun Agagu(Ondo), Liyel Imoke(Cross River) and Danjuma Goje (Gombe).
The Minister of Finance, Dr. Shamsuddeen Usman, spoke with journalista after the meeting.
Usman said, "This was a meeting where there was cooperation by all parties. The governors supported the President that the power situation needed to be treated as an emergency and needs to be treated as all tiers of governments as an emergency.
"And there was an agreement about what is involved and that the money required initially totalling about $5.37bn should come from the excess crude account.
"This will be an addition. You will recall that earlier, about $3.068bn had been drawn from the excess crude account to fund the National Independent Power Projects.
"Additionally, the Federal Government will be funding the Zungeru and the Mambila hydro plants but those are not part of the medium term plan."
The Chairman of the Governors‘ Forum and Kwara State Governor, Dr. Bukola Saraki, said Yar'Adua informed the council that "the power situation requires a national effort, not only at the federal level but at the state and local government levels."
He added, "Leading to that was a presentation on what are the key issues that will ensure we address this problem.
"The Minister of State for Power made a presentation on what is required for rehabilitation of the exciting power plants, rehabilitation of the transmission and distribution facilities as well as the completion of the NIPPs.
"It is the view of the Ministry of Energy that it is possible to generate 6,000 megawatts by the end of 2009, and by 2011 with the expansion of the national grid, the Mambila and Zugeru plants. With this we should be able to generate 10,000 MW.
"The question then was the amount of money required, and we were told for the short term it will require about $5.3bn and a presentation was made that that should be shared between the federal, states and local governments.
"After along deliberations the states supported the proposal that funds from our excess crude will go towards this project as part of our national efforts to address this problem that we see as key to the development of our great country.
Also, at the meeting, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, assured Nigerians that the Nigerian Stock Exchange would overcome its current crisis.
He however blamed the NSE for what he described as "misinformation" capable of eroding investors‘ confidence in the market.
Soludo said, "This type of misinformation will actually cause loss of confidence in the market itself, while some people were actually dumping their stocks in other to go into other sectors or go into one thing or the other.
'But the key word we want to mention is that the market is strong, the fundamentals are strong and that the regulatory and supervisory institutions and government remain committed to preserving the current gains in the market."