Barring any last-minute change, President Bola Tinubu will inaugurate the 188megawatts Geometric power plant in the Osisioma Industrial Layout of Aba in Abia State on Monday.
A statement by the company’s management on Tuesday said the plant was originally scheduled for inauguration on Saturday, February 24.
“The new date was chosen by the Presidency in Abuja due to what insider sources described as unexpected developments,” the statement noted.
It was disclosed that the president would commission the 188MW thermal plant alongside Aba Power Limited, which will take electricity from the new plant and supply to nine of the 17 local government areas in Abia State.
An energy consultant in Lagos, Cliff Eneh, was quoted as saying, “We are proud of the support the Federal Government has of late been giving to the Geometric Power Integrated Company that will generate and distribute its own power”.
The Managing Director of the company, Ben Caven, described the power plant as the biggest investment in the South-East, saying the company had spent $800m on its integrated power project, which includes building a 27km natural gas pipeline from Owaza in Ukwa West Local Government Area in Abia State to the Osisioma Industrial Layout in Aba.
“We have, in addition, installed 150,000km of cables and wires and installed four new power substations as well as refurbished three others inherited from the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria,” explained Caven.
The Geometric Power Group was founded by Professor Bart Nnaji, who was Nigeria’s former Minister of Science and Technology and later, Minister of Power.
The statement added that Nnaji had embarked on the integrated project after the then World Bank President, James Wolfensohn, and former Nigeria’s Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, visited Aba on March 17, 2004, and discovered that the greatest challenge facing both large-scale and medium-scale industrialists in Aba was epileptic power supply.
