The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Wale Edun has identified liquidity as the greatest encumbrance facing the power sector in the country.
Edun made the declaration on Monday in his presentation before the Senate Committee on Power in its ongoing investigation of the controversial Makeup Gas (MUG) reprocessing deal involving the Ministry of Finance, NDPHC, Calabar Generation Company Limited and ACUGAS Limited.
Represented by his Special Assistant, Mallam Dahiru Moyi, the Minister of Finance noted that agreements on gas supply between NPDHC and ACUGAS Limited was inherited by former President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015 as it was signed in 2011 during President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration.
He said, “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 the government is a continuum, the Ministry of Finance later came into it for the purpose of facilitating 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 ( NLNG).
“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.
“Make Up Gas ( MUG) belongs to Calabar, Calabar belongs to NDPHC and NDPHC belongs to Federal and State governments with Federal Government having 52.68%.”
In his submission before the committee, Managing Director of NDPHC, Chiedu Ugbo, who identified the Calabar plant as the best-generating plant in the country revealed that the NDPHC went out of its way to construct 80 kilometres of 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 to achieve the desired results.
Senator representing Abia South and Chairman of the Committee, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, commended the stakeholders for giving the committee clarity on the issue but maintained that his Committee investigation was still ongoing.
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