Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan, said here Wednesd ay that Nigeria should be generating enough power for use in homes, offices and c ommercial enterprises by April next year, if his administrationâ?s plans for the energy sector are fully implemented.
According to a press release from the Presidency, President Jonathan dropped the hint at a meeting with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the Chief E x ecutive Officer of JP Morgan Bank of the US, Mr. Jamie Dimon.
He projected that in the next four years, domestic power generation should rise to about 20,000mw, adequate enough for the needs of larger manufacturing industr i es, some of which currently generate their own power.
The President said the government was also tackling challenges in the area of po wer transmission and that it intended to move as quickly as possible on the cons t ruction of a new National Power Transmission Super-Grid to replace the existing g rid, which can no longer meet the nationâ?s power transmission needs.
He told Blair and Dimon that Nigeria would welcome support from international fi nance organizations and global banks such as JP Morgan, through long-term financ i ng for the super-grid project which is critical to assuring the sustainability o f stable power supply in the country.
Jonathan said his administration was according the highest priority to stabilizi ng and boosting power supply in the country in recognition of the fact that adeq u ate and stable power supply would have a beneficial impact on employment and eco n omic production.
The President also briefed the duo on his administrationâ?s efforts to boost ag ricultural production in the country through large-scale commercial farming as w e ll as measures being taken to sustain peace in the Niger Delta.
Responding, Blair said there was a huge amount of goodwill in the international community towards supporting Jonathan’s efforts to achieve rapid socio-economic d evelopment in Nigeria.
The former British Prime Minister said the decision by JP Morgan, one of the wor ldâ?s largest banks, to upgrade its representative office in Nigeria to a full-s cale branch was a vote of confidence in the country and the Jonathan administrat i on.
Also Wednesday in Abuja, Jonathan received the Foreign Minister of the Russian F ederation, Mr. Sergey Lavrov, who came to follow-up on the implementation of bil a teral agreements signed during President Dmitry Medvedevâ?s official visit to Ni geria last year.
Jonathan assured the Foreign Minister that his administration would do all it co uld to facilitate the implementation of the agreements and the expansion of area s of economic cooperation between Nigeria and Russia.
Lavrov told the President that Russia was very keen on “enriching” its relations with Nigeria through large-scale economic projects.
