The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, has said that the Federal Government may privatise the 3,050 Megawatts (MW) Mambilla Hydropower plant on its completion, The Nation reports.
Fashola, in an exclusive interview said the planned privatisation was in line with government’s policy of encouraging private generation capacity. He said: “Ultimately we will involve the private sector in the construction and management of the facility because it is consistent with the policy of private generation capacity.”
“But let me say that this is where the role of my Ministry becomes even most defined in terms of policy. Mambilla represents a policy, a policy of renewable energy using water, a policy of energy security for the country that gives us over 3,000MW, so that we are no longer solely dependent on gas.” He added; “When Mambilla is fully developed and ready, we will hand it over to the private sector.”
“If you look at Kainji, Jebba, Shiroro, they are big dams. It was government that built them, but they are now managed by private hands. So these are some of the things government must de-bottle in order for them to happen,” Fashola said, pointing out that if there is opportunity to do the same with solar, government will do it.
