

Prof Chinedu Nebo
Less than fifty per cent of Nigerians currently have access to electricity, Minister of Power, Professor Chinedu Nebo, has said.
Prof. Nebo, who disclosed this at the 15th Herbert Macaulay bi-ennial lecture organised by the Engineering Faculty of University of Nigeria, Nsukka, yesterday, said the federal government was, however, working hard to increase access to 75 per cent by 2020.
He said government was also looking at the possibility of exploiting the country’s untapped coal resource, currently estimated to be in excess of three billion tons in reserve, to power electricity in the country.
He explained that coal production declined in Nigeria due mainly to the discovery of oil and the perception that coal was a dirty energy, adding that a large quality of coal deposits was wasting away in such states as Enugu, Benue, Kogi and Gombe.
The minister noted that with the current shortages of gas, the federal government was pursuing coal development as new frontier in the country. Continue...