Expert tasks FG on power generation

The Federal Government has been urged to deploy small hydropower plants (SHPs) to boost power generation in the country.

The Director-General, Energy Commission of Nigeria, Prof. Eli Bala, said this at a workshop sponsored by the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) on implementation of SHPs across the federation.

He regretted that after the first SHP built in 1929 in Jos by a private firm, no other one was built until 2002 when the government explored it.

The Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, thanked UNIDO for working with the government in its renewable energy drive.

But UNIDO Regional Director, and Representative to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Jean Bakole, stressed the need for a re-jij of the country’s renewable energy policy to benefit local and foreign investors in the sector.