President Olusegun Obasanjo on Friday raised hope that power supply will soon improve in the country and that government has signed a deal with an investor to provide additional 5,000 megawatts within the next 48 months.
Obasanjo, who was speaking at Agura community in the Ikorodu Local Government Council of Lagos, during the ground-breaking ceremony of the independent power plant being built by Chevron Nigeria Ltd, said that government had also approved the building of four power plants across the country and that two of the plants in Geregu in Kogi and Omotosho in Ondo had been commissioned.
 
Obasanjo said that a similar plant in Papalanto in Ogun was nearing completion, while the one in Alaoji in Abia would become operational early next year. “On completion, these new power plants are expected to add about 1,600 megawatts of new capacity into the national grid,” the president said.
Poor power supply has been the sore point of Obasanjo’s eventful eight-year tenure, terminating next month, according to analysts. “Our drive towards electricity sufficiency in the country cannot be complete without the active support and collaboration of key stakeholders in the oil and gas industry.
 “It is projected that the nation’s total generation capacity will soon hit 10,000 megawatts with increased private sector involvement in the provision of electricity,” Obasanjo said. “This will no doubt bring immense economic benefits to the country,” he added, saying that the Electric Power Sector Reform Act of 2005 had contributed to the successes recorded in the power sector.
“The power with its incentives offers foreign and Nigerian investors unique opportunities to invest in this largely untapped area, hitherto dominated by the public sector,” Obasanjo said.
The Minister of Energy, Dr. Edmund Daukoru, lauded the Lagos State government for providing the land for the building of the multi-billion naira project. He said that the Federal Government would not relent in its resolve to provide power to the populace to enable them contribute more meaningfully to nation-building.
The Governor of Lagos, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, in a message commended Chevron Nigeria Limited for making huge investments in the oil and gas sectors of the economy.
He assured that residents of Agura community would ensure that the project was protected from vandalism and also ensure that workers on the project were not harmed.
 The governor, whose message was read by a Special Assistant, Mr. A.O. Odutola, said that the state government would collaborate with Chevron to carry out environmental impact assessment on the plant site.