UNICAL Plans To Generate Own Electricity

The University of Calabar (UNICAL) in Cross River State, is currently planning to generate own electricity, using the Qua River behind its campus.

Vice-Chancellor of the institution, Prof. James Epoke, disclosed this while speaking with journalists in his office in Calabar recently.

“I have discussed with some consultants of the Central Bank and the bank has some money for the project. The consultants have come and surveyed the university. They have seen that we have the potential for developing our own power, using the Qua River behind us.

“They have sent us their initial proposal and we are looking forward to bringing it to council for implementation. That is, for us to hire them and officially, they need to do a more detailed survey of the whole place such as cost benefit analysis, environmental impact assessment (EIA) and then, we package this to Central Bank who, we are sure, would fund the project,” he explained.

On whether he was sure the project was realisable, especially within the five-year tenure he would serve as vice chancellor, he said, “the programme is realisable. Our problem is that in this part of the world, we think little. The consultants who came for the project said it can be realised within 24 months.

“They even know the kind of system they are going to use and have identified two which are the dam and channelisation.

“It is realisable as far as the money is there. This time, the money is coming from the Central Bank. There is N300 billion sitting there for people to use for power projects. It is just to make sure you have good feasibility study and the feasibility study of the project goes on to say that the project is realisable and can also finance itself.

“What do I mean by that? The project can pay back the loan. How do we pay back? All the money we would have spent paying PHCN bills, diesel and so on, would be saved.

“Also, we would generate about 10 megawatts of electricity, distribute it to Cross River University of Technology (CRUTECH) and neighbouring communities and the money we get from that would be paid into that fund. It is not something we are going to pay back in three years, but up to 30 years. It is quite realisable.”

—Bukola Lawal