read also: What We Will Do To Party Members Attacking Amaechi - APC Reveals
By Prince Okafor
THE Consul General of France in Nigeria, Mr. Laurent
Polonceaux, said the utilisation of alternative sources
of energy will help to tackle Nigeria’s electricity
problem.
Speaking during the 2017 French week economic
summit in Lagos, Polonceaux said that power remains
an important driver of all inclusive growth in any
economy in the world.
Black out as charactriesed by lack of effective power
(electricity) supply in Nigeria
“Power plays a very vital role in the economic
transformation process and we all know that doing
business becomes a whole lot easy when there is
access to cost effective power.
“In Nigeria today, obtaining power by businesses
takes an average of 45-55 per cent of business cost,
and four out of every five businesses state power as
their biggest challenge to survival. If this fundamental
challenge is dealt with, we will see an expansion in
businesses which will in turn bring about more
employment.”
He also commended the federal government’s efforts
in tackling the power challenge and business
activities in the country, adding that, “This can be
seen from the latest World Bank Ease of Doing
Business ranking that currently placed Nigeria 24
places higher from 169 to 145 and ranking as top 10
most performing economies in the world.
“While we celebrate these strides, I will implore the
Federal government through the Ministry of Power to
also focus on alternative power sources like solar, gas
power and other green alternatives. If Nigeria with
it’s current power challenge sits as the giant of Africa,
imagine a Nigeria without power challenge.’’
Meanwhile, a communiqué issued at the end of the
submit, stated that, “That there are more
opportunities than challenges in the power sector in
Nigeria and there is a need to look at the challenges
of the power sector in Nigeria as creating
opportunities for construction and energy producing
companies.
“There isn’t statistics to support the fact that the
availability of power is a limitation on the growth of
the Nigerian economy as in the year 2015 there was
greater growth with lower power production and this
shows that there are other factors that affect the
growth and development of the Nigerian economy
outside power.”
The communiqué also stated: “There is a need to
increase the generation of power as this will have a
ripple effect on the improvement on the Nigerian
economy for even though there is an improvement in
the sector, there is still a need for there to be a
consistent growth in this sector.
“There is an increase in the GDP figures of Nigeria for
Quarter 3 of 2017 which stands at 1.4 percent and the
growth from the statistics seems to be majorly from
the slight growth in the oil and gas sector. This means
that if the growth in the oil and gas sector is not
sustained there might be a recession.
“Nigeria is plagued with inter-ministerial coordination
and legacy issues that poses a challenge to being
able to take up the opportunities that are available in
the Nigerian economy and especially in the power
sector.
“Disparities in the foreign exchange on the
importation of equipment and the operations of such
operations in Nigeria also adversely affects the
opportunities that can be harnessed in the power
sector.
source: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/11/nigeria-must-focus-solar-gas-power-improve-gdp-french-ambassador/
read also: Mourinho – Why I ‘don’t Care That Lukaku Isn’t Scoring

but is a pity, our thieves will not think that way sir.