Earlyface

The Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo, on Sunday reassured Nigerians, especially industrialists, of steady electricity supply in a very short time.
Nebo gave the assurance at the investiture of the newly elected president and council of the Enugu Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (ECCIMA) in Enugu.
According to him, downturn in the power sector is only temporal and that government is doing everything possible to provide stable electricity.
“Lots of work is being done. Government is putting the right mechanisms to ensure adequate electricity 24/7,” he said.
Nebo praised industrialists for their steadfastness, urging them to support government’s endeavour toward making them succeed.
The minister said that the Federal Government had commenced the mapping out of industrial and agricultural clusters across the country with a view to giving them electricity.
“Industry and manufacturing are keys to economic development and give a double digit growth to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP),” he said.
The Chairman, National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Dr Sam Amadi, said that privatisation was a major component factor in the power sector reform.
“The establishment of a competitive electricity market with free entry and exit for private providers is the major objective of the power sector reform in Nigeria,” Amadi said.
Amadi urged Nigerians to stop politicising power, saying that to privatise power was not an easy process.
According to him, the next phase of the power reform is to regulate the tariff, which he said, was already in progress.
He appealed to chambers of commerce in the country to support the transformation agenda of the present administration by ensuring the realisation of the power reform objectives.
The chairman presented a paper entitled, “New power Sector Regime as Panacea to Stable and Quality Electricity Supply”.
Earlier, the Director-General of the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Dr Joseph Odumodu, stressed the need for the public to be vigilant and take action whenever they buy substandard products.
Odumodu said vigilance was necessary in curbing the existence of counterfeit and substandard products in Nigeria.
In his acceptance speech, the new President, Dr Ifeanyi Okoye, said he would redouble efforts to move the council forward.
Okoye said he would focus on promotion of the agriculture sector as well as improve on the activities of manufacturers.
In his remarks, the past president of ECCIMA, Dr Theo Okonkwo, urged the new executive to remain focused, and promised to offer useful advice to the chamber if need be.
The event witnessed awards to some distinguished industrialists in the South-East zone of the country. [NAN]