The Federal Government has advanced its infrastructure revitalization agenda by concessioning the long-abandoned Ikere Gorge Dam in Oyo State to private sector investors, aiming to inject much-needed megawatts into the national grid.
Director-General of the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), Dr. Jobson Oseodion Ewalefoh disclosed this in a recent interview.
While highlighting the administration’s aggressive push to leverage Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) to bridge Nigeria’s infrastructure gap, the ICRC DG revealed that the Dam was constructed in 1982 during the administration of former President Shehu Shagari noting that it has remained entirely moribund, failing to generate a single megawatt of electricity for over four decades.
According to the ICRC Chief, some of the original electromechanical machinery had remained untouched inside their factory cartons since the early 1980s.
The newly finalized concession aims to unlock the facility’s latent potential, transforming the 6-megawatt baseline asset into an expanded power installation capable of scaling up to 150 megawatts.
Dr. Ewalefoh emphasized that the revitalization of the Ikere Gorge Dam forms part of a broader, deliberate strategy by President Bola Tinubu’s administration to resolve the nation’s chronic power deficit through structured private sector collaboration.
