- CBN says Nigeria’ll begin to export rice in 2017
The nation’s electricity woes have worsened as generation from its biggest power station, Egbin, plunged to a record low of 172 megawatts on Tuesday, down from 1,085MW on March 15.
Eight of the nation’s 26 power plants were idle on Tuesday, according to industry data obtained by our correspondent.
Generation from Egbin, which is located in Lagos, with an installed capacity of 1,320MW, was said to have been limited to 172MW largely due to gas supply shortages.
Its units ST3, 4 and 5 were out due to gas constraints; ST1 was said to have tripped on generator CB trouble, and ST2 was not on spinning reserve due to a management decision.
The nation recorded a total system collapse on Thursday, November 24, the second time this month and the 20th time this year, the data showed.
The total national power generation fell to 3,224MW on Tuesday, down from 3,574.2MW on Monday.
Eight of the nation’s power generating plants, including Olorunsogo II in Ogun State and Ibom Power in Cross River, were completely idle on Tuesday.
Other plants, which did not generate any megawatts of electricity as of Tuesday, were Afam IV & V, Rivers IPP, Trans-Amadi, AES, ASCO and Gbarain.
Olorunsogo’s units GT1, 2, 3, 4 and ST2 were said to be out due to gas constraints, while ST1 was out on maintenance.
The GT1 unit of Ibom Power was out on guide vane problem, while GT2 and 3 were out due to maintenance of the gas station for 45 days since October 21.
Twelve units of Afam IV & V were said to have been de-commissioned and scrapped; units GT13, 14, 15 and 16 were out on blade failure; GT17 and 18 were out due to burnt generator transformer, while GT19 and 20 were awaiting major overhaul.
River IPP’s unit GT1 was reportedly out due to gas constraints, while Trans-Amadi’s GT1, 2 and 4 were out due to gas constraints and GT3 out on fault.
The AES was said to be out of production; ASCO’s GT1 was shut down due to leakage in the furnace, and Gbarain’s GT2 was out due to gas constraints.
In the meantime, before the end of 2017, Nigeria will begin to export rice to other countries, the Central Bank of Nigeria has said.
The Acting Director, Corporate Communication, CBN, Mr. Isaac Okoroafor, said this on Tuesday during a sensitisation/awareness programme for farmers in Bayelsa State on the apex bank’s Anchor Borrowers’ Programme.
Okoroafor, who said the CBN’s ABP had started yielding fruits, insisted that with the progress so far recorded by the CBN through its agricultural financing policies, the country would begin to export rice by next year.
He said already the harvest in rice this year had exceeded the projections, noting that if the tempo was sustained, by the end of 2017, Nigeria would not only meet its national demands but would export to other countries.
Okoroafor said, “We started a pilot programme in Kebbi State with 78,000 farmers, cultivating an average of one hectare and that was when President Muhammadu Buhari launched the programme in March last year.
“The programme was to enable farmers to plant three times in year – two dry seasons cropping and one rainy season cropping. I am telling you now that Kebbi State has exceeded one million tonnes of rice.
“Not only Kebbi, Ebonyi State has keyed into it. We were there last week and Ebonyi is to give us over 1.2million tonnes of rice in one year. They are harvesting now, they are bagging and they are milling. Nigerians are booking their Christmas rice in Abakaliki.
“Abia State has ordered rice from Ebonyi State Government. Other states are keying in. In Kebbi, Jigawa, Sokoto, Cross River, rice is coming up. Nigerians are planting rice, producing rice. You need to taste Nigerian rice, it is fresh. Not the nine year old rice from Vietnam, Thailand and India. Let us feed ourselves. Our rice is healthier, it is not preserved with chemicals.
“We have been to Anambra, Niger, Jigawa, Kebbi, Sokoto, Cross River and Ebonyi just to ensure that this is not another talk show. We have seen harvest of rice which brought me to say that the harvest in rice for this year has so far outstripped our projections.
“By the end of 2017, Nigeria will not only meet our national demands which is between six and seven tonnes per year, but we will exceed it that we will have rice to export to other countries.”
Okoroafor urged the people of Bayelsa to look beyond oil saying that the state was capable of feeding the country.
Punch with additional report from Upshot