The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) says it has disbursed over N1.3 trillion to support power supply to Nigerians in the last five years.
His remarks come as Nigerians, in the past few weeks, have continued to battle poor power supply worsened by scarcity of fuel to power homes and businesses and also economic downturn.
President Muhammadu Buhari had equally expressed concern over the suffering Nigerians are going through and promised to intervene.
The CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, made the remark at a news conference following a meeting of the Bankers Committee in Abuja on Monday.
“So, what we are trying to say here is that the CBN has always been there to support the power sector.
‘’Like you all know, we have disbursed over 1.3 trillion naira in the last five years to support through the Generators or Discos or to acquire equipment or to buy meters or to improve what is being paid to electricity generating companies;
‘’So that they can continue to pay for their gas and then the system can continue to operate.’’
Premium Times earlier today reported how President Buhari ‘summoned’ Governor Hope Uzodinma of Imo State, the Minister of Power, Abubakar Aliyu, and the Chief Economic Adviser, Doyin Salami, to a meeting at the Presidential Villa on Monday afternoon.
The President was reportedly scheduled to meet separately with them and he would be apprised of the latest developments in Imo State, the power sector and the state of the economy.
The President while condemning the spate of violence in Imo State in the aftermath of the destruction of buildings and assets of the Police and the home of George Obiozor, President-General of Ohaneze Ndigbo, pledged to review the security situation in South-east Nigeria.
President Buhari had also voiced his concern over the frequent power outages, apologising to Nigerians and assuring a quick relief to the situation.
Mr Emefiele on Monday said the bank had disbursed N11.11 billion to power sector players under the Nigeria bulk electronic trading payments assurance facility, bringing the cumulative disbursement under this facility to N1.28 trillion.
‘’The sum of N12.64 billion was also released to Discos under Nigeria electricity market stabilisation facility phase two line two.
“Community disbursement under names two, first stand at 232.93 billion naira.
“Both interventions were designed to improve access to capital and ease development of enabling infrastructure in the Nigeria electricity supply chain sector,’’ he added.
Mr Emefiele, however, pledged the apex bank’s commitment to continue to support Distribution Companies (DISCOs) to provide stable power supply to Nigerians.
He said that the apex bank would be engaging with the Power Minister and NERC to see what could be done to support them.
(NAN)