|
Listen to article
|
Governor Alex Otti of Abia State declared a notable reduction in power outages following the inauguration of the 181-megawatt Geometric Power Plant, marking a significant milestone for the region.
Otti made this assertion during an exclusive interview on Channels Television’s ‘Politics Today’ program, aired on Thursday.
Vice President Kashim Shettima kicked off the week with the ceremonial launch of the Geometric Power Plant in Aba, affirming the city’s stature as a prominent industrial hub within the South-Eastern region.
The power plant, hailed as the pioneer integrated electricity facility in Nigeria, is situated within the vibrant Osisioma Industrial Hub of Aba, nestled in the heart of Abia State.
Speaking on the power project, Otti said, “This is a project that was started in 2004, during the administration of Governor Orji Uzor Kalu.”
He further elaborated that the $800 million initiative, inclusive of the construction of a 27-kilometer natural gas pipeline spearheaded by Geometric Power Limited, boasts the capability to produce and disseminate 181 megawatts of electricity.
Otti recounted that in 2010, Professor Bart Nnaji, the founder of Geometrics Power Limited and former Minister of Power, approached him during his tenure as the Executive Director of First Bank to seek funding.
Read also: How I Plan To Grow Abia Economy To ₦3.5trn – Alex Otti
He said, “We processed an $85 million facility for him (Nnaji).
“But unfortunately, he couldn’t draw down on that facility because the board of the bank felt that because I was proceeding to Diamond Bank as CEO, it won’t make any sense to allow the country to withdraw the facility when the person that was going to manage it was not there.
“I headed to Diamond Bank, which actually was the bank that was initially funding the project. On getting to Diamond Bank, we restructured the facility and saw it to completion by October 2014, the time I left Diamond Bank.
“But a lot of things happened thereafter that made it impossible for the project to take off. There was the unfortunate sale and resale of the Aba Invest Island and that took on a life of its own.
“When that was resolved, Shell, which owned the major oil block that was supposed to supply gas to Geometric Power Limited, sold it to another company whose focus was not gas for domestic use but export.
“By the time we took over on the 29th of May, we sat down with Geometric a few times and engaged with NNPC. They deployed their partners and gas was made available.”
The governor highlighted that the Geometric Power Limited plant currently provides 141 megawatts of power, with plans to increase it to 181 megawatts upon the delivery of the final turbine. He expressed confidence that power outages will soon become uncommon in the state.
He said that the third turbine of the plant had been fired and that all three turbines were operational. He added that power outages would be the exception rather than the rule, which was the situation at that time.
