Deputy Speaker, Ben Kalu Praises Tinubu’s Resolve To Expand Energy Availability In Nigeria

Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Benjamin Kalu on Friday applauded President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on his determination to expand the availability of energy in Nigeria through gas.

A statement by his Chief Press Secretary (CPS) stated that the applause came on the heels of the groundbreaking ceremony of the Gwagwalada Independent Power Plant (GIPP) project performed by President Tinubu.

The Gwagwalada Independent Power Project is a 1,350MW cycle power plant with auxiliaries and balance of plant to be situated on 547 hectares of land already acquired at Gwagwalada in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.

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It will be recalled that the GIPP was necessitated by the need for delivering gas towards additional power generation capacity in Nigeria.

The gas supply to the Plant shall be through the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano

(AKK) Gas Pipeline which is currently at its advanced stage of construction.

The GIPP’s fuel requirements will be satisfied under a long-term gas Sales, Purchase and Aggregation Agreement with Shell Petroleum Development Company Joint Venture (SPDC JV).

On completion, the GIPP project will generate an average of 10.3 million megawatts per hour (mwh) of electricity per year for a sale to the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET) which will be through power purchase agreement.

Kalu who represented the Speaker of the House, Hon. Tajudeen Abbas at the event commended the President for living up to the letters of his manifesto to prioritize power in Nigeria despite the numerous evidential odds within the first 90 days in office.

He said: “Seeking to expand energy availability through gas is an innovative way towards energy provision.

“The economic multiplier effect of this project to the FCT and Nigeria is much as it will stimulate the economy, especially the SMEs which are the greatest job creators in any economy, thereby reducing unemployment”.

Hon. Kalu who also expressed happiness with President Tinubu’s insistence on the 3-year mandate for the completion of the project, urged the related agencies of government involved in the project to expect more legislative support.

In the bid to actualize this, he pledges the resolve of the 10th Assembly towards ensuring robust oversight functions on the proper utilization of funds.

“We will insist on thorough oversight functions on all the MDAs involved in this initiative to ensure that taxpayers’ money is well utilised,” the Deputy Speaker said.