James Odhok, Governor of Upper Nile state - Credit: Eye Radio/Lou Nelson

The government of Upper Nile State is set to purchase diesel generators worth $3 million dollars to power half a million houses in the capital Malakal.

This is according to the Governor of Upper Nile State, James Odhok who recently returned from China with an accompanying delegation.

He disclosed this to Eye Radio after visiting the Ezra Company in Juba on Wednesday, October 18, to compare its quotation for generator installation with a Chinese Company.

According to the Governor, he is waiting to receive Ezra’s quotation before deciding on the purchase.

“We went to Ezra company to see the capacity of their generators because they say if we agree with them they are willing to provide us with generators in Malakal, that is the reason why we went there,” said Odhok.

“We have seen that they have a good system, so now we are doing a comparison, but we see Chinese generators are cheap let’s wait for Ezra’s quotation then we do a comparison if the one of Ezra is less than it is the best because is near.”

Governor Odhok appealed to the national Ministry of Finance to speed up the payment of $1.5 million dollars in state arrears to enable the state government to acquire the generators.

“We are in contact with the Minister of Finance, and he promised to pay. We are not requesting help from the Minister of Finance but we are demanding our money the arrears of the state to be paid to us,” said Odhok.

“It will be enough to implement this because the person told us the three generators will be enough for 450, 000 houses, that is the whole of Malakal, so we need to pay money which is $1.5 million dollars for the first instalment,” he said.

When asked about the power from Sudan to Renk County, Odhok says the project is under the national government.

But the new project is to electrify the state capital, Malakal.