Except the Federal Government finds an urgent solution to epileptic state of power supply in the country, more multinational companies may dump Nigeria for other African countries with better business climates, manufacturers and captains of industries have warned.
This warning was in spite of the $16bn which a House of Representatives probe said the former President Olusegun Obasanjo administration committed to the provision of electricity in the country between 1999 and 2007.
It is also coming 22 months into the administration of President Umaru Yar‘Adua, on top of whose seven-point-agenda provision of power stands.
In separate interviews with SUNDAY PUNCH at the weekend, the manufacturers bemoaned the colossal extra cost they bear on their production activities due to unavailability of electricity supply by government.
Mr. Simeon Okoro, president of the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture said the nation‘s erratic power supply constituted great drawback to both the small-scale entrepreneurs and large-scale manufacturers whom he said have kept closing their shops.
“You know, the economy hinges on power. Nothing can be done without electricity, as even barbers, carpenters and the likes use the facility. It is basic to whatever we do. The negative impact is indeed unquantifiable,” Okoro told our correspondent on phone.
The NACCIMA boss warned that more companies, especially multinational firms were leaving Nigeria for countries like Ghana, South Africa and other places with the right business environment.
According to him, industries are losing heavily as they spend a lot of money purchasing diesel and servicing their plants and generators.
The President, Institute of Directors, Chief Olusola Dada, described the state of power supply in the country as worrisome and said it required urgent attention.
He nonetheless blamed corruption for the poor state of power supply, adding that hiring the right people to do the right job would go a long way in addressing the problem.
Similarly, Mr. Michael Adeyemo, managing director of Fumman Group, manufacturers of juice drinks, lamented that 95 per cent of his company’s production was done on power from generators.
“Our machines run on generators. We work on diesel 95 per cent of the month in our factory in Ibadan. In the office here in Lagos, we work on diesel 80 per cent of the month,” Adeyemo explained to our correspondent on Friday.
The story is not better elsewhere. The External Communication Manager of Dunlop Nigeria Plc, Mr. Abiona Babarinde, says the company spends a minimum of N150m monthly on the purchase of diesel, adding that hardly could any tyre manufacturing firm be competitive in such a situation.
He said the company needed at least 10 megawatts to operate at full capacity, and lack of power in some of the electrical lines for about three minutes was a loss of about N3m to the company, meaning huge expenditure on generators and diesel to maintain steady power supply.
Mr. Wale Goodluck, the Corporate Services Executive of MTN Nigeria said the telecoms company had over 4,000 base stations in the country, each of which he said two generators and a set of batteries were attached to provide power for the round-the-clock service it provided.
”We lose at least a 37KVA generator a day in doing business. And in a year we are losing over 300 generators. This is different from when people just come and take out the IGR of the generator, and take out the battery.
“Now, we are talking about when they come with a bus and yank out the entire generator. It is going to take a bit of time to bring the generator back, connect it and have the site start working,” Goodluck explained.
Scandalised by the state of power supply in the country in spite of the huge financial commitment to the provision of electricity through the National Integrated Power Project by the Obasanjo government, Nigerian lawmakers of the lower chamber in 2007 set up the Ndudi Elumelu probe panel to ascertain state of the projects.
The debate on the probe panel report which catalogued many abuses of due processes and outright corruption commenced just last week amidst moves to rubbish it by some lawmakers.
Elumelu had told the House as part of the findings of the probe that about $13.28bn was expended on the power sector between 1999 and 2007 with almost nothing to show for it.
”Many strange things happened in the power sector during that time. There were instances where contracts were inflated by over 1,000 per cent and there were abuse of due process. There were some contractors who were fully paid in advance for some projects but have never visited their sites,” Elumelu, who came under barrage of criticisms from his colleagues said.
Some representatives, including members of the probe panel condemned the report for being twisted to favour popular sentiments.
Source:the punch
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