The Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun has accused the Western powers of blocking Nigeria’s move to improve power situation and condition in the country using coal.
The finance minister made this known on Wednesday while discussing the importance of addressing infrastructure gaps in developing countries at the World Bank, International Monetary Fund General Meetings.
Kemi Adeosun during the meeting stressed that power supply remains one of the key and major cornerstone of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration in order to bring about a boost in the nation’s economy.
She said: “We want to build a coal power plant because we are a country blessed with coal, yet we have power problem. So it doesn’t take a genius to workout that it will make sense to build a coal power plant.
“However, we are being blocked from doing so, because it is not green. This is not fair because they have an entire western industralisation that was built on coal fired energy.
“This is the competitive advantage that was used to develop Europe, yet now that Nigeria wants to do it, they say it’s not green, so we cannot. ”
She added: “They suggest that we use solar and wind, which is the more expensive. So yes, Africa must invest in its infrastructure, but we must also make sure that the playing field is level.”
The Finance minister further noted that the nation has a goal of borrowing the cheapest money since it would be using borrowed funds to close the infrastructure gap.