Dr. Adedeji Adeleke, billionaire businessman and father of popular music star David Adeleke, also known as Davido, has claimed that he generates 15 per cent of Nigeria’s electricity.
Speaking at the Seventh-Day Adventist Church’s General Conference Annual Council 2024 on Tuesday, Adeleke revealed that his ventures generate 15 percent of Nigeria’s electricity supply.
He disclosed that he is in the process of constructing a 1,250-megawatt power plant, which, upon completion, is expected to be the largest in the country.
“I am a businessman in Nigeria, I’m in the electricity business. I own power plants. I generate presently about 15 percent of the electricity needs of Nigeria.
“I have Chinese engineering companies that work for me. I am building and almost completed by January, by the grace of God, tenth new power plant that will be the biggest thermal power plant in Nigeria.
“It’s a 1,250 megawatt power plant to become operational in January,” Adeleke said.
Adeleke disclosed that while preparations for the project were underway, an unnamed government official threatened to prevent its completion.
Despite this challenge, Adeleke credited the near-completion of the project to the mercies of God, stating that it is a testament to divine intervention that the venture has progressed this far.
“During the course of the design and getting the permit, we ran into difficult government officials. For environmental reasons, our permit was denied, and the particular government officials that I held a meeting with told me to my face that my project would never see the light of the day. But while he was saying that, I was saying in my mind that this guy is talking as if he is God. I was saying in my mind that God should listen to him; Because he is not God, whatever he is saying is null and void.”
“So I left, disappointed and I told my Chinese friends that unfortunately we have difficulty and this project is going to stall. Meanwhile, the project is worth about $2 billion. In the process, a lot of money had already gone into the design and preliminaries. Before we get to the stage where we would need a permit and then break ground. So my Chinese friend was worried because the Afrexim Bank of China was involved so that meant bankruptcy for him. I told him not to worry,” he said.
Adeleke noted that his Chinese friend had to travel down to Nigeria to discuss a way out because he never believed that prayer was enough to get the project done.
He affirmed that prayer did as the then Minister of Power granted the approval because he saw that the project was a brilliant one.
