the minister of finance, Kemi Adeosun has accused the West
of making difficult for President Buhari to achieve his desire in the power
sector – The minister said the country was ready to build a coal
plant but this has faced rejection, She asserted that Nigeria’s debt to GDP was
low The minister of finance, Kemi Adeosun has accused the west of making it
difficult for the President Muhammadu Buhari government to develop its power
sector. NAN reports that the minister made this accusation on Wednesday,
October 4 in the US during a discussion on the importance of addressing
infrastructure gaps in developing countries at the World Bank, International
Monetary Fund general meetings. Adeosun
said Nigeria was trying to build a coal power plant to to boost electricity
output but the western powers were against it.
The minister said the goal of the
Buhari administration was to improve power as it will also propel economic
development. She said: “We want to build a coal power plant because we are a
country blessed with coal, yet we have power problem. So it doesn’t take a
genius to work out that it will make sense to build a coal power plant.
“However, we are being blocked from
doing so, because it is not green. This is not fair because they have an entire
western industrialisation that was built on coal-fired energy. “This is the
competitive advantage that was used to develop Europe, yet now that Nigeria
wants to do it, they say it’s not green, so we cannot. “They suggest that we
use solar and wind, which is the more expensive. So yes, Africa must invest in
its infrastructure, but we must also make sure that the playing field is
level.” Adeosun noted that although Nigeria was borrowing, the strategy was to
find the cheapest donor as the cost of servicing loans was high even though
Nigeria’s debt to GDP was low. “Right now, we are being very conservative about
our debt and we are trying to get the cheapest money possible from multilateral
agencies.
“We are working very hard to make
sure that we get multilateral funds first before we go to the euro bond market,
which is a little bit more expensive.” The minister said Nigeria’s goal was to
get public private investments. Adeosun urged Nigerians to be hopeful,
stressing that the nation is almost gone out of recession. said that the nation
was already getting out of recession, saying the Federal Government had taken steps
that were in the best interest of the citizens. Adeosun disclosed this in her
closing remarks at a two-day conference of National Council of Finance and Economic
Development in Abeokuta.
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