10 October 2013, Abuja – The Chairman, Presidential Task Force on Power, Reynolds Dagogo-Jack, has attributed the delay in payment of severance benefits to PHCN workers to adherence to due process.
Mr. Dagogo-Jack stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja.
He said the 40,000 staff of PHCN will be paid their severance benefits as their bio-metric data have been captured to ensure accuracy.
He explained that the large number of people involved necessitated the delay in payment, noting that the government had started paying the benefits.
Mr. Dagogo-Jack gave the assurance that all the affected workers would be paid their benefits as funds had been made available for the purpose. He also said that President Goodluck Jonathan set up the task force to ensure proper implementation of the reform in the power sector.
According to him, the Federal Government is rigorously pursing the reform agenda to make sure infrastructure in the power sector is improved upon.
Mr. Dagogo-Jack said that about 8,000 megawatts of electricity would be generated before the end of the year for injection into the National Grid. He also said that an environment conducive to training would be created at the National Power Training Institute of Nigeria.
He noted that the government recently gave successful bidders of the PHCN subsidiaries their certificates to ensure improvement in the power sector.
– NAN