Nationnewslead reports that Over 2000 communities in five local government areas in Ondo South senatorial district would soon be connected to the national grid after 12 years of blackout.
The five local government areas are Ilaje, Ese-Odo, Okitipupa, Odigbo and Irele.
Ondo South senatorial district had been without electricity for many years and Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu intervened in some communities through the use of mini-grids and solar power.
A reprieve is however underway for the communities following the near completion of the 132/33kv sub-station being constructed by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) in Okitipupa, headquarters of Okitipupa local government.
Interim Administrator of the NDDC, Mr. Efiong Akwa, who spoke in Okitipupa during an inspection tour of the power project said, President Muhammadu Buhari and the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio were interested in seeing the completion of the project before December 2021.
Akwa assured that the commission would inject needed fund to complete the project within the next two months as well as assist the contractor to tackle the challenges of sourcing foreign exchange for the procurement of equipment needed to be imported.
According to him, “From what is on the ground here, this is a massive electricity project and a lot of money have been sunk in here.
”We have gotten to a point of no return. For this project, I can tell you that there is no retreat, no surrender. We have to complete this project and put it to use as soon as possible. As it is now, we have done about 85 percent of the job.”
”We will be a bit practical to address the issue of getting foreign exchange for the importation of some of the equipment. We will authorize the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, to debit our dollar account, so that we don’t have an issue of foreign exchange shortfalls.’’
Governor Akeredolu said the project was dear to the people and urged the NDDC not to relent in the efforts until the project was completed.
Akeredolu said: “The southern senatorial district of Ondo State represents the core economic base of the state, as it was the oil-producing area. He observed that the absence of public power supply in the area had affected the state economy.”
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