The federal government has commenced moves to provide dedicated electricity supply to industrial clusters across the country, with a 50-megawatt power project expected to deliver 24-hour electricity to manufacturers at the Idu Industrial Estate in Abuja.

The Minister of State for Industry, Owan Enoh, disclosed this yesterday at the groundbreaking of the power project in Abuja, saying reliable electricity was critical to reducing production cost, increasing local manufacturing and creating jobs.

Enoh said the initiative was part of the government’s industrialisation strategy, which focuses on local production, value addition, economic diversification and stronger integration of Nigerian industries into global markets.

“When you produce locally, you contribute to job creation. For our abundant youth, you provide for them a pathway for employment,” he said.

The Minister said the government was seeking to establish practical models that could be replicated across industrial clusters, adding that dependable electricity would enable factories to increase production, expand operations and employ more workers.

“Industrial renewal is not a sprint. It is a marathon,” Enoh said, stressing the need for sustained cooperation among the government, private sector and beneficiary communities to protect infrastructure and ensure the projects deliver their intended economic benefits.

He said the industrial power initiative was part of a broader effort to rebuild Nigeria’s productive capacity through higher factory utilisation, increased local sourcing of raw materials and greater value addition.

Explaining the project’s location and implementation, the managing director of Welbeck Electricity Distribution Limited, Afolabi Aiyela, said the project would initially generate 10MW from a site near the AKK gas pipeline in Zuba.

He said the electricity would be transmitted through a 33kV line to the Idu Industrial Estate, while the remaining 40MW would be developed within the estate after the gas pipeline is extended to the area.

Aiyela said the industrial estate currently had a potential electricity demand of between 300MW and 400MW, indicating the scale of the power requirements in the cluster.

On his part, the Minister of Power, Joseph Tegbe, said the government was adopting captive and decentralised power generation to connect electricity generation directly to industrial consumers.

Tegbe said the federal government was conducting technical audits of power infrastructure in major industrial corridors, identifying the Lagos industrial axis, Abuja-Kaduna corridor and Enugu-Onitsha axis as priority areas.

He said the Lagos industrial corridor accounted for about 40 per cent of national electricity demand and that the government was targeting the creation or restoration of about 180,000 jobs in the axis within the next six months through interventions to improve electricity supply. (Weekend Trust)