National Grid: I’ll Address Perennial Power Failure with Tax Breaks – Atiku

The Presidential candidate of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has stated that his administration will address issues surrounding power failure with tax breaks, ‘a consortium of private sector institutions to establish an Infrastructure Debt Fund (IDF) to primarily mobilise domestic and international private resources for the financing and delivery of large infrastructure projects across all the sectors of the economy.’

Alhaji Abubakar said this after the National Grid collapsed again on Wednesday for the 6th time in 2022, he revealed that he will place priority on the power sector.

“I am reliably informed that there was a total National Grid Collapse at precisely 12:23 pm today. This is one collapse too many. It is the 6th time this is happening this year alone.

Due to the priority that I place on the power sector upon which the successes of other sectors are hinged, I am proposing innovative financing of infrastructure that will involve the facilitation of a review of the financial, legal, and regulatory environment to promote private investment in power, among other sectors.

I’ll promote the incentivisation, with tax breaks, a consortium of private sector institutions to establish an Infrastructure Debt Fund (IDF) to primarily mobilise domestic and international private resources for the financing and delivery of large infrastructure projects across all the sectors of the economy.

The IDF will have an initial investment capacity of approximately US$20 billion. In addition, I’ll cause the creation of an Infrastructure Development Credit Guarantee Agency to complement the operation of the IDF by de-risking investments in infrastructure to build investor confidence in taking risks and investing capital. -AA”

The Eko Electricity Distribution Company stated on Wednesday through its Twitter account that the national grid collapse occurred at about 11:27 am.

“Dear customers, we regret to inform you of a system collapse on the national grid at precisely 11:27 am today, Wednesday, July 20. We are in talks with the Transmission Company of Nigeria to ascertain the cause of the collapse and a possible restoration timeline.

We will keep you updated on the situation.”