Oscarline Onwuemenyi 03 September 2015, Sweetcrude, Abuja – Chairman of Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, Dr. Sam Amadi, has highlighted poor budgeting and misplaced procurement as some of the major challenges preventing generation, transmission and distribution companies in the power sector from improving their services and providing adequate power to Nigerians.
NERC Chairman, Dr. Sam Amadi.
Dr. Amadi, made the disclosure at a two-day workshop organised for stakeholders in the sector to chart a way forward, in Abuja, pointing also to performance management and poor project management as other challenges affecting the power sector in the country.
“We saw in June this year, how generation capacity went as low as 2000mw, but later came up to 4,700mw.
“We set a benchmark of at least 5000mw but today we are at 5000mw or more hoping to reach 6000mw before December,’’ he said.
Speaking on the issue of poor budgeting, he said: “If TCN (Transmission Company of Nigeria) proposed a budget of N50 billion but government approved N30 billion and releases only N10 billion it will stall the implementation of projects in the sector”.
“There is nowhere in the world where projects can be completed with this type of budget provision,’’ he said.
The NERC boss, meanwhile, has charged the generation and transmission companies to work hard to improve their services and provide adequate power to Nigerians.
He said the essence of the workshop was to ensure that stakeholders in the industry reinforced their technical capacity on the grid in order to accommodate more energy.
Amadi said the workshop was to brainstorm with stakeholders by showing them the template designed by NERC to enable them deliver effectively and on time.
