May 5, 2021
By Evan Charles InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-Tony Elumelu, The group chairman, United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, and Transnational Corporation of Nigeria on Wednesdays said Nigeria needs to generate 100,000 megawatts of power daily to function its economy.
He said Nigeria needs to improve capacity in the transmission of the power industry,” our country needs at least 100,000 megawatts of electricity per day for us to power the economy, but today we are operating less than 5,000 and we need to do more,” Elumelu disclosed in an interview on ARISE News, a 24 hour international television news channel .
The chairman of Nigeria’s largest quoted conglomerate, Transcorp said they have a track record of turning around businesses, “in this case the generating plants having seen what we did at Ughelli moving it from 150 to over 750 megawatts per day and also the need, Nigeria needs huge electricity and we have enough, I think the government is doing the right thing encouraging people who have the track record and capacity to help improve electricity to do so. We want to do that and more in the country in this space,” Elumelu said.
He noted that another critical part is in the area of distribution and payment, while commending Godwin Emefiele, governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for helping to drive increased revenue in the sector. ” Up until the end of last year payment of less than 20 percent of power supplied is what is received; but currently it improved up to 50 percent and not so much is owed,’ he added.
According to him, Transcorp Power alone is owed over a N100 billion , but noted its gradually improving, ” for the power sector in Nigeria to work well and it must work well if we have to guide this economy, we need to increase generation, make sure we fix gas supply to generating companies, we need to make sure the transmission lines operate within capacity for adequate power transmission and to make sure that power generated are taken by DISCOs and the meter to the end users who pay so that if we generate electricity, we should be able to get money to meet our obligations,” Elumelu said.
The leading African entrepreneur disclosed that Transcorp invested in Oil & Gas not necessarily because of Oil; but to generate gas to convert to electricity. ” The acquisition we did recently I’m happy to say its already supplying gas to our Afam Power Plant,’ he noted
“I know that the transmission sector in the power industry need to improve capacity and whatever we need to do to make that happen, we need to do and the time is now because we are all suffering this,” the Chairman of Transcorp affirmed.
According to the head of Nigeria’s largest quoted conglomerate, Transcorp whose subsidiaries include Transcorp Power, “sometimes generating plants run into difficulties because they generate and it can’t be taken, this can result in the power station breaking down, all of these frustrations we don’t need in the power sector, whatever it takes to fix that sector, we should. Like I said earlier some of us in the power generating space have signified interest to be involved in the transmission business so that collectively we should be able to make it work,’ he affirmed.
Elumelu noted that when the system works people pay for services and the distribution companies should also take what is supplied to them and remit payment to the GENCOs. “Each of the three critical parts in the Nigerian power sector must work well, the generating companies must generate, the transmission company must transmit and the distribution company must make sure it gets to ends users because that is actually where people will begin to feel the impact of this electricity,” he added.
While responding to why Afam GENCO has not concluded payment, he explained that Transcorp has two companies in the power sector, the Transcorp Power and the Trans Afam Power limited, “Transcorp power owns the Ughelli Power Plant and the installed capacity of Ughelli is 990 megawatts of electricity, we own it 100 percent, the second plant is the Afam Power Plant, it’s a $300 million acquisition, our deal with the federal government is that the plant have not been completed, General Electric (GE) is handling something in this area and has promised to complete it this year, but the Federal Government believe in what we have done at Ughelli Power Plant, when we took-over the plant, it was generating 150 megawatts, we took it and daily generation improved to 750 megawatts and in record time the federal government of Nigeria was very impressed with us under President Goodluck Jonathan. Also, the current government is quite impressed with our track record in Ughelli and allowed us to invest there and the understanding is that GE will complete it; but before that, we wanted to takeover they Plant and require 25 percent payment to takeover the Plant and supervise the completion of that installation which is ongoing now, again thanks to the federal government, Minister of Finance and the CBN Governor, they are making the payment so that GE can complete it and when this is done, we make the final payment.
On the hospitality aspect Elumelu disclosed that plans to build a hotel in Ikoyi is still in the pipeline ; but had issues with certain authorizations from the government which slowed down the effort, but are currently in a good position to carry on with its plans in the hospitality business.
” I must commend our leadership in that space, its about having good people working with you, they are doing quite a lot, they are being very innovative and creative, thinking of so many things, so soon watch that space, I believe before the end of this year something will happen, the hotel business is a long to medium term plan, but in the short term, they want to do certain things, but watch that space I think before the end of this year, you will see some commercial activities going on there,, the top notch African entrepreneur disclosed .
On Afriland Properties at the Falomo shopping complex, he said they we are extremely excited , and seeking to put up something magnificent seeing Falomo asthe heart of Lagos. “We ran into difficulties with the Governor Akinwunmi Ambode’s administration which boiled down to government authorization, we wentt to Court, but sometimes there is a limit to how you can litigate on these things , but where we are currently is very good, last Sunday I had a meeting on these and I’m happy to say that the Government, the Company and Investors are all finally coming together and want to start it again, but this time we are thinking of putting up an office complex , hotel and a small mall because there is also concern about traffic congestion in that area. So, we have finally come to terms and under the new leadership in Lagos State, it was quite interesting it started with Raji Fashola’s regime, , the Ambode’s regime truncated it, now the new Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu is reviving it,” he declared.
Elumelu noted that unfortunately it will cost more now to invest in that area compared to what would have been invested before, “taking a look at the exchange rate its different now, it may cost almost like three times more, we want something extremely iconic and you will be proud of what you will see there,” he said.
