The Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, has said his administration is working closely with the new management of the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) to improve electricity supply across the state.

Obaseki, who spoke to journalists in Benin City, said the state has the capacity to generate about 1000 megawatts of electricity daily, expressing confidence that with the partnership with the BEDC, the state will witness increased power supply by next year.

He said, “We are very optimistic that by this time next year, electricity supply would have improved across Edo State. We are very blessed in Edo State as we have the capacity of generating about 1,000 megawatts of electricity every day in Edo State. We don't need that amount of electricity to power every house and industry in the state.

“Edo State has the largest kilometers of fiber optic cable. It has 1,200km of fiber optic cable in the state. With electricity and fibers, people don't need to leave their villages and come to Benin City to do businesses as they will be able to grow the economy of our state wherever they are. We have made investment in poultry, oil palm, cassava and other agricultural products in the state to make Edo the agricultural hub of Nigeria.”

The governor noted, “As a government, we are continuing to rebuild our infrastructure as the raining season was extraordinarily long this year. It still rained last week and is still raining in December, posing a problem and challenge and not letting us pick up the pace of construction and repair of roads destroyed by the rain. It's better now and as a government, we have made enough and adequate provisions to make people move their goods and services across the state.

“Unfortunately, the Federal Government is not doing what we are doing in terms of ensuring motorable roads for citizens as we still have challenges with federal roads in Edo State.”