Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola has observed that the failure of the Nigerian power sector to work has nothing to do with technology.
Rather, he identified economics of energy and politics of energy as some of the problems affecting the sector. Fashola spoke at the 11th Nigerian Association for Energy Economics& International Association for Energy Economics Annual Conference in Abuja. Represented by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing, Louis Edozien, Fashola also claimed that Nigeria has not displayed the zeal required to build an economy beyond oil.
He said, “The reason why our industry is not delivering has very little to do with technology; it has to do more with the economics of energy, the politics of energy, the legality of an industry where multiple private and public companies are interacting through contracts.”
Also, speaking at the event, the Executive Secretary, Petroleum Technology Development Fund, Aliyu Gusau, and a former Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Funsho Kupolokun, noted that the oil and gas sector was still very far from being transparent. Kupolokun said: “Everybody is talking about transparency in the petroleum industry. Everybody is talking about it; what is happening is that we are still not doing it.
We keep talking about it. “In 1999, when I came back into the government system, it was a key issue; a number of bodies were set up by the government; yet today, we are still talking about it.” On the other hand, Gusau said more focus should be placed on the midstream and downstream sector of the industry.
