Oscarline Onwuemenyi
04 October 2017, Sweetcrude, Abuja – The Federal government is looking forward to having private investors bring before it good proposals that would see it divest part of its shares in the 11 electricity distribution companies in the country, Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, has said.
Fashola, who disclosed the plan for a possible divestment of the government’s 40 percent stake in the power distribution companies or Discos, said the government would be open to welcome new and tangible offers.
“Certainly, the government wants to see more investments in the sector, you would have heard from the president and from the vice president that our role really is to enable private sector lead our economy.
“So, I would like to see an offer on the table, and you will see how I will respond to it. There is an assumption that there is an investment we are turning aback and if there is one that I am missing, please show me the direction to it,” he said on a television programme, Arise News, in Abuja.
“At the National Council on Privatisation recently, we approved the privatisation of another of the power plants – the Afam Power Plant.
“So it shows you government wants to see investment, but the investments that are coming into the country are first and foremost portfolio investments on the stock market and over time you will see larger footprints settling in the real sector and infrastructure and that is when you know the economy is really back on the swing,” Fashola added.
He also disclosed that negotiations for the finance of the 3050 megawatts, MW, Mambilla Hydro Power Project would soon kick in following the government’s award of the contract for the $5.72 billion project.
The government had in 2013 sold 60 per cent of the shares of the Discos to preferred investors during its privatisation of successor generation and distribution assets of the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN.
Speaking further on government’s plans in the power sector, Fashola said the plan for the Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, would eventually lead to it getting a new board and properly staffed.
