The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, (SAN), promises that all things being equal power generation in Nigeria will increase by 2,000 MW within 12-15 months.

 Fashola, while presenting his plans for the Power sector in Abuja, stressed that his promise is hinged on   factors such as budgetary provisions, and ability of the Ministry of Petroleum to  build some critical infrastructure to transport gas to the Power Plants.

 The Minister  however dampened the hopes of Nigerians for a quick-fix to the power supply challenge as he stressed that  available power is slightly larger than the capacity which it can support, and the flipside to exceed it would result in  persistent system collapse. 

 The Federal Government, FG  through the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has identified a total of one hundred and forty-two critical projects, of which 45 are at 50% and above level of completion, of these lot, a further twenty-two (22) projects can be completed within a year, he explained.

 He added that FG hopes from the 2016 budgetary provision,  to aggressively pursue completion to increase the carrying capacity from the Generation Companies, GENCOs to the Distribution Companies, DISCOs, from which transmission carrying capacity must expand well ahead of the generating capacity that will take care of future expansion in power generation.

 Fashola who addressed the thorny tariff controversy, appealed to Nigerians for  understanding as the  contentious matter bothers on Government's  credibility with investors,  citizen’s attitude and attractive pricing of product for  investors.

 "Tariff  is the price of producing power which covers generation, gas purchase, transportation, transformers, staff costs all dis-aggregated and charged per kilo watt/hour to make the business of power profitable" he explained