OpeOluwani Akintayo
Lagos — The Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission, ICRC and the Nigerian Electricity Management Services Agency, NEMSA are collaborating toward reviving transformer repairs and testing workshop located in Ijora Olopa area of Lagos State, through the Public-Private Partnership, PPP project.
Mr. Chidi Izuwah, Director General of ICRC made the disclosure during a facility tour to transformer repairs and testing workshop at Ijora in Lagos on Tuesday.
He called for private partnership drive in addressing Nigeria’s physical infrastructure deficits.
Izuwah said the purpose of the visit to the facility was on pre-contract monitoring to see how to ensure all moribund Federal Government facilities were revived through private partnership investments.
He reiterated the importance of the workshop facility to Discos as it would afford quick fix of failed and bad transformers in the sector, adding that this would equally generate employment to Nigerians.
According to him, we have resolved and made commitment to put back to work, the transformer repairs and testing workshop facility through the PPP in power sector.
“The electricity in the country has challenges but we need to intervene in tin the infrastructure chain of the distribution segment.
“We are regulating a process by ensuring that all government moribund workshop and facilities are revived to commence operations,” he said.
The DG said: “This transformer repairs and testing worship is a national asset, so, we are working to ensure effective regulation that will encourage PPP.
“ICRC will fast track PPP initiative to revive the country’s transformers workshops for the benefit of the nation, which is in line with the next level agenda of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Izuwah lauded the managing director of NEMSA for ensuring effective regulations in curbing substandard electrical equipment in the power sector.
He said the key strategic objective for the ICRC was to accelerate investment in national infrastructure through private sector funding by assisting the government of Nigeria and its Ministries, Departments, and Agencies, MDAs to implement and establish effective PPP.
In his remarks, Mr. Peter Ewesor, the Managing Director of NEMSA said that rehabilitation of the transformer workshop will attract more investors and create employment for Nigerians.
Ewesor said that if the workshop was revived, it would develop indigenous engineers to embark on repair and assembling of transformers locally.
According to him, there are well over 700,000 bad transformers that are littering around the country, because there was no workshop to repair the bad transformers.
“NEMSA has ensured that all imported transformers that failed to meet specifications were rejected from coming into the country.
“In the last few months, we have disallowed about 68 transformers which failed specifications into the country,” he said.
Ewesor said the agency was also collaborating with Standards Organisation of Nigeria, SON to check the influx of fake and substandard electrical materials and equipment into the country.
He said that the agency had raised a 12-member committee to check importation of substandard electrical equipment into the country.
“Contractors who indulge in such practices feel they are cheating the country but they are cheating themselves because once such equipment fails, they will be forced to reinstall it again,” he said.
He said the committee comprising five officials from SON and seven from NEMSA was to help trim the flow of substandard equipment and also sensitise the suppliers on the dangers they pose to the use of electricity across households.
