Transnational Corporation of Nigeria Plc (Transcorp)  has decided to postpone plans to construct one of Nigeria’s biggest power plants. The decision comes as a consequence of the gas scarcity and the economic decline that make it difficult for Africa’s most populous nation to obtain the sufficient volume of fuel and collect  the right amount of funds that this massive project necessitates, reported The Nerve Africa.

The source wrote that in 2014, the Lagos-based company cited that it would raise $1b to build a 1,000-megawatt gas-fired facility. In 2012, it purchased the Ughelli plant in the hydrocarbon-rich Niger Delta from the government and succeeded in doubling its output to 700 megawatts. Since then, the militant groups’ attacks on pipelines along with the dollar shortage,  have cut electricity supplies to millions of Nigerians and raised import prices and inflation.

According to Bloomberg, Niger Delta Minister, Usani Usani,  declared that Nigeria is to put an end to the attacks on pipelines; the government is currently in talks with the militant groups, trying to confirm which militant group is responsible for the attacks.

Bloomberg added that the scarcity of gas has reduced Nigeria’s power generation to less than half of the installed capacity of 6,000 megawatts, the lowest in a decade, even as the country holds the continent’s largest reserves of the fuel, contributing to the contraction of the economy, which may shrink by 1.8% in 2016.