Why do many power projects remain stalled, and what will you do differently to ensure reliable electricity?

Q14: Electricity is unreliable and families and businesses spend a large part of their income on generators. How will you make power more reliable and affordable? Answer: My policy is to unbundle state power assets, concession national grid transmission to private investors, get gas supply guarantees for power plants, and encourage captive power generation for industrial zones.

Q15: Many rural communities are far from the national grid. What role will solar, mini-grids and other alternative energy sources play in providing them with electricity? Answer: I would make solar mini-grids that will serve as the primary power source for off-grid communities, supported by zero import tariffs on solar components and capital subsidies for renewable energy providers. Q16: Nigeria has invested in many power projects but electricity remains unreliable. What will you do differently, and how will you ensure abandoned or delayed electricity projects are completed? Answer: My administration will audit all stalled power projects, convert viable uncompleted assets into public-private concessions, and enforce strict anti-corruption oversight on all energy contracts. Q17: Bad rural roads prevent people from reaching farms, markets, schools and hospitals, especially during the rainy season. How will you improve rural roads and connectivity? Answer: I plan to expand the Rural Access and Agricultural Marketing Project (RAAMP) using matching federal-state funds to pave critical farm-to-market feeder roads.

Secondly, it is a big boost to businesses. Aba is one of Southeast's industrial nerve centres. The other is the Nnewi axis. Inadequate power infrastructure is identified as the most problematic factor for doing business in Nigeria. More than 70% of firms in Nigeria use generators. Thirdly, the project is delivered by the private sector - and an indigenous one to boot! It demonstrates the resilience of the private sector despite all the business environment issues. It also demonstrates the capacity of the local private sector to deliver on such huge and complex projects. Why does this excite me? I have all along been concerned that: 1. The Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) has over the years suffered from inadequate investments, failure of generation, transmission, and distribution infrastructure. 2. Nigeria’s core infrastructure stock is very low, estimated at 35-40% of GDP, below the international benchmark of 70% and below South Africa 87%, Indonesia 70%, China 76% and India 58%.

· Open up the entire power sector from generation to transmission for private investments. Going forward, the goal of every developing country must be to achieve universal access to electricity, ensuring that every citizen benefits from reliable power for daily needs, education, healthcare, and economic activities. This would be in line with the SDG 7 (Sustainable Development Goal 7), which aims to ensure affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all. In this wise: · Nigeria must double efforts to support the likes of Prof Nnaji. Nigerian governments both federal and state must provide the Business environment that will make the private enterprises more competitive by (1) reducing their costs of set-up and operations (2) improving their margins and (3) making government policies more predictable · In particular, the authorities must create an environment that will enable distribution companies to recover full costs for power supplied to their consumers with firm commitment to a metering program for all customers. The scourge of electricity theft must be dealt with through a viable partnership between investors in the distribution companies and the government with legislative support for prompt action against electricity theft.

The electricity power crisis in Nigeria continues to be a matter of immense concern. In particular reference is the situations in both the Southeast and the entire states of the Northwest and Northeast that have been in complete blackouts in the past three weeks. Every government department responsible for addressing the problem must be quick in its intervention and restore electricity back to the distressed geopolitical zones. Meanwhile, I still believe that my solution, as encapsulated in my Policy Document, ‘My Covenant with Nigerians’, remains the most proactive plan to lead our country out of perennial darkness. There is an urgent need to remove the entire electricity value chain from the exclusive list and grant states the power to generate, transmit, and distribute electricity for themselves. I firmly believe that an industrial dispute with the Federal Government in the nation's capital should not affect industrial activities in any of the states or cities of the country.

1.4. ENERGY The ADC will: 1. Diversify Nigeria's energy sources to strengthen national security. We will expand and decentralize energy generation to ensure more reliable, resilient, and locally responsive power systems. ● Empower individual states and groups of states to generate, transmit, and distribute electricity, making power supply more reliable and better aligned with local needs ● Create functional state electricity markets, allowing states to develop energy solutions based on their natural resources and economic priorities 2. Strengthen national fuel security and price stability. Ensure Nigeria is protected from supply disruptions and global price shocks by building buffers that stabilize the domestic energy market. 32