The Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu, has met with the handlers of the Siemens Project under the Presidential Power Initiatives (PPI).
The meeting which held in the office of the Minister had in attendance, the Managing Director of Siemens Energy, Mr. Seun Suleiman, the Siemens Energy Project Director, Mr. Sean manley and Siemens Energy West African Head of Business Development, Mr Oladayo Orolu.
The Siemens team briefed the Minister on the status of the project, the project timeline/milestone deliverables, and the challenges being encountered. They also sought the support of the Minister, who is a major stakeholder in the PPI to ensure an accelerated completion of the project, so that Nigerians can enjoy significant improvements in power supply. The project focuses on improving power transmission and distribution infrastructures.
In his response, Chief Adebayo Adelabu confirmed to the team that he has reviewed the project content, project objective, and the milestone activity plan. He said that in as much as the project objective is laudable and desirable to achieve his Ministerial mandate, he is not completely impressed with the pace of the project activities as well as the structure of Siemens involvement.
He emphasised that, for a project of this magnitude and intent, given Siemens’ global reputation, they should be involved end to end in the activity plan. He said that, for example, the Siemens role in the acquisition and installation of the twenty fixed and mobile substation should not be restricted to just procurement alone. Siemens should be involved in the installation of these substations to boost power transmission and distribution infrastructures.
In his words, “Now that Siemens has confirmed the arrival and clearing of the substations, what happened to their installation. Why is this being delayed? There is no doubt that the installation of these substations will boost transmission and distribution stability and rehabilitation. I need further insight into the structuring of this project and my views will be expressed at the next project Steering Committee meeting.”
He further promised to visit the sites where these substations are assembled. He also thanked the Siemens contractors for honouring his invitation for the briefing and confirming his readiness to give his utmost support to achieve success of the project.
