Nigeria Content Online

Lack of funds for
the construction of gas pipelines to power stations in the country may
affect the federal government’s road map on power. The Chairman,
presidential task force on power, Barth Nnaji made this assertion on
Thursday during a meeting with the joint committee of the National
Assembly on gas, where they discussed the progress of the various
gas-to-power projects in the country.

He said although
government is prospecting for alternative fund for the gas-to-power
project, the possibility of attaining the projected 40,000 megawatts by
2020 from thermal power plants is being frustrated by none allocation of
fund in the budget.

“There is no way we
can shy away from infrastructure if we want to grow the economy and
power is critical,” he said. “I want you to look at it very well because
this is key but government alone is not going to fund it. The private
sector will have to look for money to come, because the plan is for
government to develop the infrastructure to deliver the gas to the power
plants and then hands off power generation and distribution in 2011.”
“Provision of infrastructure for gas is key to unlocking economic growth
in Nigeria,” the task force chairman stressed.

The Director
General of the Budget Office of the Federation, Bright Okogwu, however,
denied the statement that the project has no budgetary allocation. He
informed the Committee that N195 billion has been set aside for national
domestic gas development in the 2011 budget.

He, however,
admitted that government cannot provide the total N725 billion needed
for the project in a budgetary year because of pressing demands from
other sectors.

According to Mr
Okogwu, the sector needs another round of “holistic review.” “One of the
things plaguing the sector is because investment is not robust; we are
not spending sufficient funds. But as managers of the nation’s
resources, we need to prioritise.

“In 2011, we have
provided N195 billion, it is there in the budget. N725 billion is close
to a trillion. You will not get that from the budget in any year because
the aggregate budget is a little above one trillion, so asking us to
put another money into the budget will create problem,” Mr Okogwu
argued.

The Committee directed the budget office to enlist the gas-to-power project in the 2011 budget.

“You should give them funding even if it means looking for a third
party to attract national prominence,” Osita Izunaso, Chairman, Senate
committee on gas said. “In this next two weeks, let us have a framework
of how you are going to achieve the third party and if there is no fund,
there is no point continuing with the project. The Task Force should
wind up.” Mr Izunaso declared.