NBET: Why Nigeria sells electricity to neighbouring countries.
Nnaemeka Ewelukwa, managing director, NBET, spoke on Tuesday when he appeared before the house of representatives committee on finance.
Ewelukwa was responding to questions of why Nigeria sells electricity to other nations when the country does not have enough for its populace.
“Nigeria sells electricity to Niger Republic and Benin Republic. Those transactions of recent have been more driven by specific generation companies like NDPHC,” he said.
At the heart of the transactions is the issue of the damming of the river. We have dammed the river and if we don’t provide electricity to countries that are upstream on the river, they can also build their dams which will create a major crisis for the country.
“So there is a strategic reason. If they are able to dam the river upstream, we are in trouble.”
Ewelukwa said about six percent of the electricity generated in the country is sold to neighbouring countries.
He said the federal government is working on structures that will enhance power distribution in the country.
“Most of the power generation companies are located within the south-south and south-west largely because of gas with one in the south-east, of course, we have the hydros in Niger state,” he said.
“The issue of evacuation is something that is at the heart of the priority of the government. At the moment, the contracted capacity is about 14,000 megawatts; out of that 14,000 megawatts, what is available in terms of what the generation companies are capable of producing is around 7,600 megawatts.
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