Northern Governors Forum (NGF) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Energy Commission of Nigeria (ECN) with a view to addressing the irregular power supply in the region.

The MOU was signed last at a colourful ceremony at the end of the two-day summit organised by the NGF, held at Assa Pyramid hotel Lafia road-Kaduna.

The chairman, technical committee summit on power generation in the northern states, the governor of Kaduna state, Arc. Mohammed Namadi Sambo signed on behalf of the NGF while the Director General ECN Professor Sani Sambo signed on behalf of his commission.

Reading the communiqué at the end of the summit, the governor of Kaduna state, Arc Mohammed Namadi Sambo said time has come to complement the federal government’s effort in the provision of steady and interrupted power supply with a view to resuscitating the ailing industries and near-collapsed of the economy.

According to him “NGF is obviously committed to supporting the far reaching resolutions reached at the two-day summit, as well as other efforts aimed at improving the endemic energy crisis that has hampered rapid development in all its ramifications in our beloved region.”

He stated that the possibilities and comparative advantages of the renewable energy sources such as hydro, wind, solar and bio-mass in the region would facilitate execution of the project.

He further explained that the summit noted that readiness of the financial institutions to finance power generation projects and called on the Northern Governors to identify with the principles and ideas of public private partnership (PPP) “because it is only through such collaborations that this noble venture and other infrastructural development could be accelerated to empower and improve the living standard of the people.”

Arc Sambo said the summit also observed that power-related courses were lacking in most of the state owned universities in the north. To this end, the summit urged the promotion of science education in the north with a view to introducing energy-related courses aimed at building capacity and development of skills in the power sector.

He said the summit noted with keen interest and supports the federal government decision to extend gas to the north through pipelines for power generation and other industrial use and called on the federal government to urgently complete Ajaokuta, Abuja, Kano and Katsina gas supply projects.

It would be recalled that the summit was organised by the Northern Governors Forum as a response to the challenges facing the power sector.