President Bola Tinubu has pledged to mobilise resources for the establishment of 10 additional mobile power stations nationwide.
Mr Tinubu made the pledge on Monday at the State House, Abuja, during a meeting with a delegation from Siemens Energy, led by the Managing Director for the Middle East and Africa, Mr Dietmar Siersdorfer.
Mr Tinubu reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to strengthening Nigeria’s power infrastructure.
He said the partnership with Siemens Energy under the Presidential Power Initiative (PPI) was central to his government’s vision of improving electricity supply, stimulating industrial growth, and enhancing livelihoods.
He stated, “Let me affirm our government’s commitment to this aspect. In addition to that, we are going to resource and find ways to fund the additional ten mobile stations as long as we follow this up.’’
Mr Tinubu said the power sector remained at the heart of national progress, noting that education, healthcare, and transportation depended on reliable energy supply.
“Without power, it is an impossible objective. This is what we must achieve for this continent to see the glory of economic recovery and banishment of poverty,” he said.
Mr Tinubu said completion of the PPI’s phased projects would place Nigeria in a position of pride on the continent by unlocking the nation’s human and material potential.
“There is no industrial growth or economic development without power. I believe power is the most significant discovery of humanity in the last 1,000 years,” he said.
The meeting was also attended by Vice President Kashim Shettima, Ministers of Finance, Wale Edun, Power Adebayo Adelabu, and Special Adviser on Energy, Olu Verheijen.
Mr Adelabu who highlighted progress on the PPI, noted that Siemens Energy had commissioned 10 mobile substations and several power transformers.
He said the projects added 984 megawatts of transmission capacity to the national grid.
The minister said two of the five new substations under Phase One of the PPI – located in Abeokuta, Offa, Ayede-Ibadan, Sokoto, and Onitsha – are expected to be completed by the end of 2026.
“As we consolidate the gains from the pilot phase and phase one, we are preparing to advance to phase one-batch two, covering 16 new substations nationwide with a total impact of over 4,000MW,” the minister said.
Speaking in the same veins, Mr Edun said the completion of the PPI would enhance Nigeria’s ease of doing business, create more jobs, and reduce poverty.
In his remarks, Mr Siersdorfer said the project was progressing steadily.
He noted that Siemens had begun constructing a training centre to develop local expertise in electrical engineering and promote technology transfer.
He said, “The PPI is not just a project but a platform for long-term development and prosperity.’’
He added that Nigerian professionals were being engaged directly at the project sites, with thousands of local jobs being created in surrounding communities.
The representative of the German Ambassador, Johannes Lehne, reaffirmed his country’s support for Nigeria’s power reforms and continued collaboration with the Tinubu administration.
(NAN)