Stephen Ukandu, Umuahia
Abia State Government says it will distribute 53 electricity transformers to 53 communities in the state.
This, according to the Commissioner for Power and Public Utilities, Ikechukwu Monday, is part of efforts of the state government to boost electricity infrastructure.
The Commissioner disclosed this while addressing the press after taking delivery of 53 electric transformers recently procured by the state government.
He said: “This is part of the sets of transformers that will be delivered in the state to fulfill his (Dr. Otti’s) mandate of access to reliable electricity to Ndi Abia.
“So, the first batch we just received, we intend to distribute it to 53 communities within the state to support them in boosting electricity supply.
“And these are part of boosting electricity infrastructure in Abia State. As you know, we support the stakeholders in the sector to see how we can also boost infrastructure,” Monday stated.
The commissioner said that the distribution exercise would be done in phases to ensure sustained impact and opportunities for more communities to benefit over time.
According to him, through step-by-step initiatives like phased distribution of transformers to different communities, the electricity assets in Abia would witness a significant improvement.
He said that the criteria for selecting benefitting communities include high population density, commercial hubs, high security risk and “first come, first serve” basis.
“We have received several applications from several communities and they have been identified and we will be inviting them to collect their transformers.”
Monday, who urged the benefitting communities to take ownership of the transformers received from the government, said that the communities that were not captured in the first batch would be captured in the next batch.
