The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, has assured Nigerians that power would be fully restored soon.
Adelabu, who spoke through his media assistant, Bolaji Tunji, said the Federal Government and the gas suppliers would soon reach an agreement to resume the supply.
“I can tell you that very soon, everything will be resolved. The minister has met with the gas companies, and they are going to sign an agreement. After that, they will resume the supply of gas. Efforts are being made to pay up a substantial part of the debt. Normalcy will be restored soon,” Tunji said Wednesday.
However, our correspondent learnt that the gas companies had refused to resume the supply of gas to power generation companies unless all outstanding debts were offset.
Adelabu had earlier disclosed that the gas companies were being owed $1.3 billion, and that informed their decision to stop the supply of gas to all the gas-fired power plants since January.
In a recent interview with newsmen, Adelabu disclosed that the Federal Government owed the power distribution companies, making it difficult for the DisCos to fulfil their financial obligations to the GenCos.
“Today, we are owing a total of N1.3tn to the power generating companies, out of which 60 per cent is being owed to gas suppliers. Today, we have a legacy debt, prior to 2014, to the gas companies of $1.3bn; at today’s rate, that is close to N2tn,” he had said.
According to Adelabu, the Ministry of Power is “working underground to make sure that we resolve these issues and pay these debts either through cash injections or through guaranteed debt instruments to ensure the continuity in the generation of power.”
