Vice President Kashim Shettima on Monday, flagged off the Light Up Nigeria project in Enugu as part of the federal government’s efforts to improve energy supply to industrial clusters in the southeast region. Shettima, who spoke during the Light up Nigeria Southeast Business Roundtable held in Enugu, also disclosed that President Bola Tinubu has vowed to return the southeast region as the nation’s industrial powerhouse.
The launching of the project was done by the Niger Delta Power Holding Company Limited (NDPHC) and its partners. The event was to launch an initiative to ensure dedicated power supply to industrial clusters across the country, with the southeast as a major bloc.
Shettima described the project as a transformation journey and renewal of hope for industrialists and investors in the Southeast region
He said: “I am pleased to witness the second launch of this strategic collaboration between the Niger Delta Power Holding Company and its invaluable customers. We gathered here to embark on a strategic journey for the light-up Nigeria in the Southeastern States.
“This marks the renewal of hope for investors and industrialists. This is not a ribbon-cutting charade, this is a calculated endeavour to re-engineer our economy.
“The project serves as a long-awaited solution to the power supply that has undermined our economy over the past decades.
“This intervention is a calculated endeavour to re-engineer our economy, oil the wheels of industries and stabilize our electricity supply industry. Power is a sinequanion for any industrial takeoff. No matter the efforts committed to industrial development, if there’s no power, there can be no industrialization.”
Shettima added: “The economic fortune of Nigeria remains the critical concern of President Tinubu as we believe that if the power sector works, Nigeria works too. So we must make the project work and make Southeast work.
“The Southeast is an industrial powerhouse and its economic fortune remains a critical aspect of President Bola Tinubu. He wants the Southeast to work again. If the southeast works, Nigeria works.
“Some describe the Igbo as the Nigerian Jews; geographically mobile, economically enterprising and educationally ambitious. You have the hope of the nation, right in our midst. The hope of the nation rests with Ndigbo.”
Governors of Anambra, Enugu, Imo, and Ebonyi States took their turn to address the audience.
Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu state who virtually spoke on behalf of his colleagues said that the Light-Up Nigeria Project signals a new dawn for power and industrialization of the Southeast of the region, saying the initiative aligns with his administration’s disruptive approach to governance underpinned by thinking outside the box.
Mbah, while commending the federal government and the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) for coming up with the project to ramp up power supply to industrial clusters in the Southeast, enjoined industrialists of the region to fully key into it and take advantage of the initiative to remove any bottlenecks they face regarding power availability.
He said: “The Light up Nigeria Project today is, in my view, a new dawn for power in the Southeast and one of the most innovative initiatives in the power sector. This project is of critical importance since it deals with the power sector, which I believe is pivotal to economic growth. Indeed, if we fix power, a lot of other sectors would fall into place.
“This project ensures efficient dispatch of power to the largest consumers via bilateral sales agreements, which overrides the existing bulk purchase arrangements through NBET, leveraging on a willing buyer, willing seller structure.
He pledged his government’s continued support to industrialists and other private investors across the state to complement the undeniable boost that the Light-up Nigeria project would bring.
The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Niger Delta Power Holding Company Ltd (NDPHC) Chiedu Ugbo, said the event was to provide an opportunity for the business community in the southeast zone to interact with the Vice President of Nigeria, adding that it marked the formal launch of the Southeast phase of the strategic collaboration between NDPHC and other project partners to provide steady and reliable electricity supply to industrial and business clusters across Nigeria.
“TCN has approved the connection of the new substation to the national grid, and efforts are underway to deploy this fast-track transmission substation.
He however lamented that the optimal utilization of these assets has been hindered by technical challenges and market constraints.
Some of the dignitaries in attendance were the governor of Imo State and the Chairman, of Southeast Governors’ Forum, Senator Hope Uzodinma; the governor of Enugu State, Dr. Peter Mba; the Governor of Anambra State, Prof. Charles Chukwuma Soludo and the Governor of Ebonyi State, Hon. Francis Nwifuru.
Others were former governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha; former senate President Pius Anyim; Minister of power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu; the Chairman, Board of Directors, Enugu Electricity Distribution Company, (EEDC) Emeka Offor, among other dignitaries.
