Nigeria’s ministry of power, on Tuesday, said power generation in the country will rise to an all-time high of 6000 megawatts this year. But with several failed promises and missed due dates in the past years, it remains to be seen if this target will be attained.

Speaking during the ministry’s defence of its 2015 budget before the Senate Committee on Power, its Permanent Secretary, Dr. Godknows Igali, said “Going into 2015, Nigerians will have more electricity. All the new owners of plants are pumping in more money and generating more power. There is spirited effort by the new owners to deal with the teething problems and Nigerians will have more electricity.”

However, he said the only threat to attaining this feat would be the issue of vandalism of gas pipelines.

The high levels of investment inflow coupled with the bolstering of a young engineering team, trained by the government, bodes well for the future of power. “The power sector is a sector that has been attracting the highest amount of investor confidence. We now have massive training of young people; over 1,000 people have been trained. The idea is to have a power sector of people who are very well trained and not quacks,” he enthused.

On the performance of the 2014 budget, Dr. Igali said the ministry received 43 percent of the N59 billion approved, though he stressed the need for the ministry to start generating its own income through sourcing funds from bilateral agreements and development partners.

Chairman of the senate committee on power, Sen. Philip Aduda, commended the ministry for its initiative in seeking to diversify its revenue streams, adding that once the election were over, the committee would get on with overseeing that all power plants were operating at peak capacity.