Mr. Fashola, who spoke while interacting with journalists after the inspection of the Power Plant built by Azura Power, a private developer and financier of Independent Power Plants (IPPs) across Africa, said it was also a statement of “very clear intent” about the commitment by President Muhammadu Buhari to fulfil his promise of improving power generation.
The minister, who also described the project as a statement about the commitment of the administration “to do everything it can to enable the Private Sector to deliver on its own specialty which is to make investments such as this”, pointed out that the description was in the context that the project was facing very many approval difficulties before President Buhari came into office in 2015.
Recalling his first visit to the project, when, according to him, the foundation was being laid, Mr. Fashola stated that between then and his current visit, the Azura IPP and other surrounding communities have transformed; adding, “The members of the communities who are providing water, food and all sorts of services to the workers who are here, have experienced a new economy.”
Other benefits that have accrued to the communities as a result of the project, the minister said, include facelifts to the roads leading to the project. He noted that even the road works the government was undertaking from the Benin- Agho Road was affected by the development as, according to him, the drive time was shorter than when he first visited in 2016.
Thanking the development partners, JV Siemens and Azura as a brand, for its commitment and belief in the nation’s economy, Mr. Fashola also noted, as another benefit, that over 1,500 Nigerians worked on the project.
“But beyond the hard work, beyond the economy, there are also jobs. You’ve seen people moving from one company to another. Some of the guys I spoke to in the Control Room used to work with government, some with GE, NDPHC and others, still they moved here because there are new job opportunities, and more of this will come, without a doubt in my mind”.
“When we started, I talked about incremental power, this is it,” the minister said, expressing the hope that the president would be there on completion of the project later this year to officially commission this project and add it to the stock of power. He added that although work was yet to finish on the project, it is already generating power.
Pointing out that the project was one of the commitments the president made in his address in January this year, Mr. Fashola declared, “This is one of the Power Plants; Katsina will happen and so will Kashimbila and quite a lot of others at different levels. Some of them may not be too visible in terms of Mini-grids which are being installed in the villages and communities to increase access to electricity. So we mean business and we are moving”.
NDPHC Managing Director, Chiedu Ugbo, who conducted the minister round the facility, told him, “The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) are building two new 330KV lines out of Benin North that will connect the station to the grid at Ajaokuta 330KV Substation in Kogi while NDPHC is also building a 330KV line out of Benin North that will connect the station to the grid at the two locations namely the nearby Old Benin Main Substation and Onitsha 330/132KV Substation in Anambra State”.
“In order to ensure that we transport power from the Benin Generation Company which is different from Azura, we are constructing another line from this transmission station to Benin Mains and then join the line coming from Onitsha. So that will enable us transport additional power from here and ensure that the power generated by Azura and from here we will be able to put on the grid for the benefit of Nigerians. It will happen and on time,” he said.