The Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has announced that it is partnering with the Borno State Government to establish a Gas Power Plant to solve the protracted blackout problem in the state.
The blackout followed the vandalization of power towers by insurgents cutting off Borno from the national grid since January this year.
Mele Kyari, the NNPC Group Managing Director, disclosed this when he led a delegation to visit Babagana Zulum, Governor of Borno State, on Friday.
According to Mele, there is a lot the NNPC and the Borno state government can achieve together as value chain partners.
He said: “We are here to join you to resolve power problems in Borno state in particular Maiduguri metropolis and environs it is Mr president’s cardinal principles to deepen gas power consumption in our country In the domestic market and the easiest road to that is to deliver gas to power and ultimately to industries.”
The GMD said the NNPC’s mission in Borno is in line with the federal government’s declaration of the next ten years as the decade of gas which will translate to physical gas entering into domestic markets.
“We saw the opportunity and the challenge to support Borno state in the course of the challenge we have with our power supply; we are now partners in the value chain, we have talked to each other and we think it’s very possible to establish a dedicated power plant in Maiduguri which will serve current needs of power supply not only in Maiduguri but to other parts of the neighbouring cities,” Mele stated.
The gas plant will be ready in a maximum of four months, he told Zulum.
Governor Zulum welcomed the partnership, which he believes will ease the agony of the people of the state who have suffered untold hardship since the power crisis began three months ago.
“The ongoing insurgency has cut off the entire Borno from the national grid in the last three months. We put all our efforts and restored it back, we have seen the joy and jubilation the people of Borno demonstrated after the restoration. But unfortunately, after 48 hours, the same group of insurgents went back and destroyed the main tower again,” Zulum lamented.
The governor said that the restoration of power can reduce the effects of the insurgency and the attendant poverty as millions of livelihoods have now been affected by the crisis.
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