Politically speaking, every genuine investor who is interested in the power sector in Nigeria must be encouraged to come and do business here because the sector is still very “green” and an investment destination, given her current paltry available installed capacity of 14,000MW for a population of over 200,000,000.

The government is aware of the need to create an enabling environment in order to encourage investment in the power sector as shown in the recent law that decentralized the sector and also, the steps the Presidency took by intervening to clear every legal hurdle that threatened to stall this project.

It is noteworthy that this 181MW end-to-end project is located in the Osisioma Industrial Layout of Aba in Abia state and was executed by a non-state actor, Professor Barth Nnaji after discussions with the then World Bank President James Wolfensohn and the then Nigeria’s Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala following their observation that power supply was the greatest challenge to both large-scale and medium-scale industrialists in Aba that is reputed to be the hub of indigenous manufacturing in Nigeria.

Nnaji was prevailed upon to replicate similar Abuja 22MW Geometrics project that he was a part of in Aba.  The Aba Geometrics power station is scheduled to be commissioned by Mr. President on February 26.

We look forward to see other interested investors emulate this act by indicating interest to invest in the power sector, particularly at this time that the power sector has been moved from the exclusive to the concurrent list.

Apart from non-state actors, the 36 sub-nationals in Nigeria are expected to take advantage of the electricity law and invest in electricity either directly or indirectly in order to close the existing energy gap and stimulate our ailing economy.

The Geometrics Power project is end-to-end because it has its own distribution network to distribute power to 9 out of the 17 local governments in Abia state and a 27-kilometer gas pipeline from Owaza in Ukwa West LGA in Abia state.

In addition to guaranteeing 24-hour power supply in its area of operation, it will be interesting to see the Plant engage in cross-border electricity trading (electricity export and import during periods of surplus and shortfalls) with both the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC) and Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN). As time goes on, the Plant should consider the diversification of its energy mix by exploring other methods of electricity production like renewable sources.

On their part, customers are expected to behave responsibly by the timely settlement of their bills and not getting involved in energy theft.

Last but not the least, this laudable effort is expected to draw more genuine investors into the power sector in Nigeria because electricity is pivotal to economic growth and development and the present energy deficit is not desirable for the industrialization of the country.