The measures that will be implemented through 2021, are aimed at improving transparency, service delivery, and re-establishing investor confidence, and hence, investment in the sector. It will also accelerate electricity access including off-grid public private partnerships as an important component of the PSRP.
OpeOluwani Akintayo 01 December 2017, Sweetcrude, Lagos – Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, has met with some…
“The Federal Government of Nigeria should stop any action plan that will further give monies to non-performing Privatized electricity distribution companies (Discos) in Nigeria while we call on all African governments to massively invest in energy mix of hydro, solar and nuclear to drive Industrialization.”
It, however, explained that before the takeover, technical competence reviews including forensic audits of all the Discos and the adequacy of their technical partners should be undertaken to ensure that they had not failed in their initial agreements with the government after the privatization exercise.
“You can see that debt is almost paid. That and all the regulations being put in place as highlighted by the Nigeria Electricity Regulation Commission are part of government’s commitment to its Power Sector Recovery Programme,” he noted.
He said, “As we are all aware, there have been comments about how effective privatisation has been in the power sector and some people have called for its cancellation, which I disagree with.”
“Mini-grids are already a feature of many parts of the world where privatization has taken place and they democratize access to power for those who want to produce below 1MW of power.”
The minister said that statistics revealed that only six million households consumed energy in the country, adding “if this is correct, it means that some people steal energy in the country, while only a few pay.”
He said the 340 megawatts of electricity would be generated from Afam power plant alone while another 270 megawatts would be generated from same facility before end of 2018.
The minister added that all the measures put in place in the Power Sector Recovery Programme by the present administration were geared towards actualising government’s objective of achieving incremental, steady and uninterrupted power supply to Nigerians.
