6.4 Objective 4: Ensuring Affordable Access to Water, Energy, Finance (Including Microfinance), Markets and Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to all Citizens, especially the Poor 6.4.1 Nigeria’s current power generation capacity is approximately 4,000 Megawatts of electricity as against immediate national demand of 10,00015,000MW. In 2005 a Rural Electrification Fund (REF) was created to promote rural electrification and currently, about 600 of the 774 Local Government Headquarters in the country are connected to the national grid. Nigeria is a country of about 160 million people, but only about 40% of the population has access to electricity. This is grossly adequate, but the Federal Government hopes to conclude the on-going power sector reforms by the year 2012. This is expected to raise power generation to about 10,000 mega watts. Also negotiations have been concluded for the construction of a nuclear power plant in the country. 6.4.2 Nigeria is not living in isolation from other African countries when it comes to the problem of portable water. Despite the huge amounts committed to water resources and power generation, only about 72% of urban dwellers and 49% of rural dwellers have access to safe water. The Federal and State Governments, within available resources, have undertaken a series of reasonable investments in the area of water management. 6.4.3 The communication sector has witnessed enormous revolution in Nigeria within a few years. As at 1999, the number of telephone lines in the country was less than 500,000. With the adoption of the GSM, the number of telephone lines has increased to over 80 million. The increase in internet activities also necessitated the establishment of a Ministry of Information and Communication Technology in order to explore and take advantage of the growing sector. 6.5 Objective 5: Progress towards Gender Equality, Particularly Equal Access to Education for Girls at All Levels. 6.5.1 The unsatisfactory representation of women in political positions in Nigeria has been a continuous issue of general concern. The 1999 Constitution of the 79