From CHARLES ONYEKWERE, Umuahia
Abia State governor, Alex Otti has charged members of the board and management of the South East Development Commission, SEDC, to pay attention to the provision of electricity, as it is key to the economic development of the region.
Governor Otti stated this when he received a delegation of the Board of SEDC.
He said investment in power is what government should do.
“These are the kind of investments that government should make to stabilise the economy. If it does not stabilise the economy, they cannot deal with unemployment and poverty.
“You are the regional development body speaking for all of us. An area that is so critical to us, a major area to pay attention is electricity.
“If you are talking about industrialisation, within small and medium scale enterprises, a major input into virtually every effort people make in industrialisation and manufacturing is power.
“So, if you solve it, you would have probably solved 60 percent of their problem.” Otti stated.
He revealed that as part of his commitment to support SMEs for the industrialisation of the state, his government supported Geometric to come on stream, adding that discussions are ongoing with Interstate Electrics Limited for the state to take over their equity in EEDC to enable it facilitate the provision of power to the rest of the state.
He added that Geometric has the capacity to generate about 188 megawatts, of which 100 megawatts will be enough to power Aba Ring Fence, while the rest can be wheeled to Umuahia Ring-Fence.
