The single, most critical agenda should be to fix power in Nigeria – Tony Elumelu tells CNN’s Zain Asher

Group Chairman of United Bank for Africa Plc, Mr. Tony Elumelu has maintained that fixing the electricity challenge in Nigeria will be a catalyst to transform Nigeria's economy within a short space of time.

In a CNN film with Mr. Elumelu at the Niger Delta where his group is making huge investments towards power. As Zain Asher interviews Elumelu at the Ughelli Power Plant, owned by Transcorp, a company within Elumelu’s portfolio, he says: “To me, the single, most critical agenda should be we fix power in Nigeria… I see a future where everyone will have improved access to electricity in Africa. Because improved access to electricity will help us to develop Africa, help us to transform the continent… It starts from the macro level and gets to the micro level... When we took over this plant the output was 150 megawatts, this was 2013, but today we have capacity to generate about 750 megawatts.”

Elumelu tells CNN that he believes the plant can produce more than a quarter of Nigeria’s power: “The capacity we have, this plant has about a thousand megawatts. By end of this year, we should be at full capacity of 1,000. If we do 1,000 for context, Nigeria is currently generating 3,000 or something, less than 4,000. Let's say 4,000. If it's 4,000 and we're doing 1,000, that already is 25%.”

Asked about the global trend towards green energy, Elumelu says: “Renewable energy is very good, but in this part of the world, where we're coming from, we need huge, massive amounts of energy.”