The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Wale Edun, declared in Abuja on Monday that liquidity is the major solution required by the troubled power sector.
The need for liquidity in the power sector was made by Edun in his submission to the committee investigating the controversial Makeup Gas Reprocessing Deal involving the Ministry of Finance, Niger Delta Power Holding Company, Calabar Generation Company Limited and ACUGAS Limited.
The minister represented by his Special Assistant, Mallam Dahiru Moyi, said the agreements on Gas supply between NPDHC and ACUGAS Limited was inherited by former President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015 since it was signed in 2011 during President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration.
According to him, “Just as the Ministry of Justice was not aware of the contract agreement, the Ministry of Finance was also not part of it from the beginning but since government is a continuum, Ministry of Finance later came into it to facilitate the required liquidity.
“The issues on the ground about contracts agreements being investigated by the Senate Committee on Power is not about restructuring but providing the required liquidity which the Ministry of Finance is doing through collaboration with the Nigerian Liquified Natural Gas.
“Since NLNG pays Gas in Dollars, the Ministry is collaborating with it for a practical solution of bringing liquidity into the age-long contract agreement through Deed of Transfer.”
“Makeup Gas belongs to Calabar, Calabar belongs to NDPHC and NDPHC belongs to Federal and State governments with the Federal Government having 52.68%”, he added.
In his submission before the committee, the Managing Director of NDPHC, Chiedu Ugbo, said the company as a result of the gas supply agreement with ACUGAS Limited, is taking gas from three out of five units and generating power from the Calabar plant to the National Grid which according to him, is the best power plant in the entire country.
He also noted that the NDPHC went out of its way to construct an 80-kilometre gas pipeline for utilization of MUG in Calabar and Alaoji power plants.
He, however, lamented that problems relating to systemic transition, frequency and voltage issues, have not made the firm achieve the desired results.
In his remarks, the Chairman of the Committee, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe (APGA Abia South), thanked the stakeholders for giving the committee clarity on the issue but added that is still an ongoing investigation.
