Ooni Of Ife Visits Babatunde Fashola At Abuja - Photos
The Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi paid a courtesy visit to the Hon. Minister of Power, Works & Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola, SAN at his Abuja residence, yesterday 5th, June…
Showing posts with label Babatunde Fashola. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Babatunde Fashola. Show all posts
Wednesday, 1 June 2016
Electricity Tariff Irreversible – Fashola, NERC Boss
The hope of Nigerians to get the recent hike in electricity tariff reversed was dashed yesterday as the Minister of Works, Power and Housing, Babatunde Fashola and the Acting Chairman of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Dr. Anthony Akah, said the increment had become irreversible.
Fashola and Akah, who spoke at the opening of a two-day public hearing on a motion, “Electricity Tariff Hike in Nigeria,” organised by the Senate Joint Committee on Labour and Power, explained that the commission was constrained by the Act establishing it from reversing the new tariff. The Senate had, after debating the motion in February, which was moved by the Chairman, Senate Committee on Labour, Employment and Productivity, Senator Suleiman Nazif, mandated the Joint Committee to investigate the circumstances leading to the hike.
The Senate also mandated the regulatory commission to reverse the tariff pending the outcome of the public hearing, a directive that was never honoured by the NERC. Explaining his refusal to comply with the directive, the NERC boss told the joint committee that obeying such directive would have created series of avoidable setbacks in the sector.
According to him, reversing the hike would have created a market gap of about N575 billion, which would have compounded the initial market gap of N187 billion the takeoff tariff slammed on investors.
Moreover, he noted that six generating companies (GENCOs), had before the Senate’s resolution, taken NERC to court over the tariff hike and that they could not do final order on reversal of the tariff since the process that led to it was in compliance with section 76 (8) of the Act guiding the operations of the commission. Fashola, however, supported the submissions of the NERC acting chairman, saying that the sector needed the market reflective tariff to survive. He said lots of indices led to the hike, like borrowing rate for investors, exchange rate availability and cost of gas, among others.
“One of the reasons why the tariff has to go up was that a major component, a significant number of our power plant depends on gas; out of about 26 power plants that we have, only about three are hydro. “We were heavily dependent on gas, people were exporting gas because gas was selling outside the country at $4 and it was selling for domestic use at $1.30.
Government reviewed that price to $3.30 and it is the primary component for manufacturing. Power has come up; it should make sense unless government decides to subsidise it,” he said.
According to the Minister, even with the recent hike in electricity tariff, Nigeria still ranks among countries with low tariffs in Africa and by extension, the world. He told the lawmakers that since 2005, when power privatisation process started till 2013, when the major generating (GENCOs) and Distribution (DISCOs) were handed over to investors, every segment of government was involved, and that if there was any failure now, it should be for all and not a particular group.
Thursday, 26 May 2016
Reno Omokri's Reply To Those Mocking Viral Photo Of Fashola Sleeping
Saturday, 30 April 2016
FG to introduce toll on some reconstructed roads – Fashola
The federal government is set to reintroduce toll on some roads that will be built or reconstructed.
The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola SAN, made the declaration while fielding questions as guest on the popular Channels Sunrise Daily programme.
The minister said it would be pretentious to assume that the roads would get better if we continued to make our roads absolutely toll free. He added that, there would however be alternative roads to the ones that would be tolled.
Fashola declared, “We should stop being pretentious that roads can be had for absolutely free everywhere. There will be toll roads if we want to get out of this situation. There will be alternative roads as well so that people can choose.”
Fashola also talked about severance package for ex-workers in the three ministries. He explained that the record he met showed that about 50,000 such workers were due severance pay and that about 47,000 have been paid representing about 97 per cent compliance.
“Now, for me, it is a clear evidence of an intention and good faith to pay. Pensioners are about 5,000 and 3,000 have been paid; that is more than 50 per cent compliant. When I queried the reasons for the delay, they told me there was a verification process going on and the approvals they had to spend money on that process had expired. I gave them a new approval”, the Minister further explained.
He said the seeming delay in payment was as a result of the verification exercise going on adding that the verification was due to the allegation that when the payment started “people were altering records, issuing employment letters at severance point and backdating them to people who were not members of staff”.
“That is what has delayed this process. The money to pay is there but they said they are not going to pay until they are sure of the people they are paying. So that process is going on. It has to be properly done and when it is completed we will pay. These are the issues. So when people get angry or agitated, it is to do so in a context”, he said, adding that it is not an unwillingness to pay as some people have already been paid.
On the call for review of the privatization policy especially with regards to the Power Sector, Fashola, who recalled that the nation’s refineries were concessioned in 2006, noted that there was agitation then “by the voices that we are now hearing”, that they shouldn’t have been concessioned adding that as a result, the YarÁdua administration responded to that and stopped the process.
He declared, “I think our choice as a nation must be experiential. The YarÁdua administration responded to the agitation and stopped the process. But that was in 2007; where are we today, nine years after? We still don’t have the quality of refineries we want”.
“The Ministry of Petroleum just shared with us the hard work they are doing getting the refineries back on after about seven years. Perhaps, as you are aware, Dangote is now building a refinery. Perhaps if we had allowed that process, and I think Dangote was one of the concessionaires at the time”, he said.
Noting that government could start reviewing and nothing would happen, Fashola said in lieu of reviewing, focus should be “on getting what is on the ground to work”, adding, “And that is what I am doing, that is what I’ve told you about getting all the various power plants to work”.
Wednesday, 27 April 2016
My Children Are Also Suffering The Effect Of Power Failure, Says Fashola
Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, says his children are also facing the effects of the poor electricity supply presently being experienced in the country.
Fashola who has been very vocal during his tenure as Governor of Lagos state some years ago, has been left to answer many questions Nigerians have been asking about his capability in handling the country’s power sector.
Fashola, while speaking on Channels TV, pointed out that the best way to get out of this power problem the country is facing is to supply more gas to the power plant.
"It's a very hot season of the year. I see my children too sweating, having heat rash and they look at me like what are you doing about this thing. Let me be very clear, this problem can be solved. It needs detailed and methodical approach. First work to do is to supply more gas because without gas, I am like a generator owner who can't get fuel, so I can't power my plants. There are errors of planning of yesterday but they are errors that can be corrected" he said.
We’ll Fix Lagos-Ibadan Expressway Despite Court Injunction – FG
Funding for the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway is captured in the 2016 budget and the road will be constructed despite court injunctions against its further development, the Federal Government has said.
It argued that the development of the country and the lives of the citizens should not be held in abeyance because of a court case or injunctions.
When asked if the government would consider giving out the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway to a new concessionaire, Fashola stated that the funding for constructing the road had already been captured in the 2016 budget.
He said, “The Lagos-Ibadan road as you know is now the subject of a court case. Injunctions have been obtained to stop the arrangement put in by the last administration to finance the road with the private sector. And an injunction was granted by a court in Nigeria saying that nobody should raise money or finance the development of the road.
“Thankfully, there’s no injunction against the government building its road yet, and I hope there will be none. So, the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway is part of what we put in the budget this year. However, I got a message last night (Monday) from one of the lawyers suggesting to me that the action has been dismissed. But this was late last night. So, these are some of the problems that we see, when people write and get court orders to stop development.
“At the end of the day, in a contract, the main remedy that the law recognises is damages for breach of contract; of course, you know I am a lawyer. But why should the developmental process of Nigeria and the lives of Nigerians be held in abeyance because you are in court?”
Fashola reiterated that the amount needed to complete the over 200 roads that had been awarded was about N2tn, adding that the government would make sure that every road get some level of attention.
He said, “The strategy I recommend is let’s take the roads that carry the heaviest traffic and phase them. Phase one should be done this year and finished or taken to near completion. Next year, phase two; third year, phase three; and in each phase, let us ensure that at least every geopolitical zone of the country gets something.
“But there are some roads that are more compelling than others, and my classic case is the Ilorin-Jebba road. That road is the lifeline for agriculture as it ensures a lot of supply between the North and the South. So, our stand is to focus on those kind of roads that carry the heaviest number of vehicles and that carry critical services, which other departments rely on to survive.”
On whether the government would fund road construction strictly from the budget, the minister said, “Essentially, we can do most of those roads because we proposed a budget of N433bn for the three combined ministries. And our plan is to use N68bn for roads, N99bn for power and N66bn for housing.”
This is just as a Federal High Court in Lagos on Monday rejected the prayer by the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice to dismiss a suit filed by Bi-Courtney Highway Services Limited seeking to halt the rehabilitation of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
Bi-Courtney had filed the suit in 2012 to challenge the termination of the concession contract awarded to it by the Federal Government for the construction of the road.
The company contended that the fresh concession purportedly granted to Motorway Assets Limited through The Infrastructure Bank did not go through any due process.
The AGF had on November 3, 2015 filed a notice of preliminary objection challenging Bi-Courtney’s locus standi to file the suit.
