24hrs electricity grid to cut down business cost by 40% – experts

 

By BLAISE UDUNZE

Economists from the academic sector have predicated that with public electricity grid working 24 hours, Nigerian economy would greatly reduce business costs by 40 percent and add up three percent to GDP. This, they said would also cut down unemployment that seems to fuel social unrest in nearly all six geo-political regions of the country.

Dayo Samuel of the department of Economics Education at the Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education, Ijanikin said that Nigeria’s man-hour lost as a result of the poor national power supply cannot be quantified. “But I bet you, if this president is able to fix the power challenge as his singular achievement, you’ll see an accelerated growth in national productivity. I believe we could achieve up to four per cent increase in gross domestic product (GDP) and cut unemployment drastically,” said Samuel.

Afiz Olaosebikan of the department of Economics at the Lagos State University, Ojo while agreeing that Nigeria could achieve dramatic increase in GDP if power is fixed, he does not share in any optimistic expectation of that realization. “Honestly, I don’t see any increase in power generation during the life of this administration. The president appears more of a talking man than working. I’d like to see practical steps towards his projection of achieving 10, 000MW by December 2013. I don’t see that target being achieved,” said Olaosebikan.

Some experts have estimated that Nigeria spends a whopping $13 billion yearly on imported diesel to run factories. This estimation does not include domestic usage, which could run even higher. Already, President Goodluck Jonathan is rethinking the attainability of the much-taunted Vision 20:2020 goal inherited from former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

 

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