…Ten Years After, Privatisation Objectives Not Achieved – Stakeholders
By ABAH SUNDAY, Abuja
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has stressed the need for operators in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) to increase access to power by Nigerians while also prioritising consumers’ ability to pay.
The President made the remark in his address to mark the opening ceremony of the the three-day Inaugural Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry, NESI, Market Participants and Stakeholders Roundtable, NMPSR, Event 2023 themed: “NESI privatisation and Its 10-year milestone: The Journey So Far, Opportunities and Prospects,”
holding in Abuja on Monday.
The President’s speech read by Sadiq Nwanka, the SA on Energy and Infrastructure in the office of the Vice President, Kashim Shettima, said, “We must prioritise access to electricity. Mr President’s challenge has been universal access to electricity.
“But you must understand that customers have different abilities to pay, and must be protected.
The government is willing to provide the enabling enabling environment that would unleash the power sector potentials.”
In his address earlier, Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, who lamented that the sector performed abysmally in the ending initial 10 years of experimenting with privatisation, said now that it is time for renewal, any operator that had not measured up in terms of performance over the decade, will not benefit license renewal.
He said, “I made mention of it that ten years down the line the licences are expiring and it’s time for renewal. Renewal is not automatic. Any of the privatised companies that has not lived up to expectation will not have its licence renewed. We have to know whether you have complied with the terms and conditions with the licence you have been given.
“I made mention in my speech that most of the countries do not privatise their electricity supply value chain-from generation to transmission to distribution. But bad enough, we have done this, how can we work around the current status to achieve our priorities and our objectives?
“And I said that it’s not a job for one person or a set of stakeholders. It’s a job for everybody. We all have a role to play.
We must all come together and play our role so that we come out strong and achieve a success in the industry.
“We’ll look at the technical capacities of the GenCos and the DisCos. We will look at the financial capabilities of the DisCos. How much investment have you made since you got this licence? How much improvement have you made to the infrastructure? Which of the AT&C losses have you reduced based on the agreement when you were given the licence? These are the very serious conversations we need to have with the private sector operators at the distribution and the generating companies level.”
Speaking, the Senate President, Sen. Godswill Akpabio, who was represented by the Chairman, Senate Committee on Power, Sen. Enyinaya Abaribe, noted with regret that at the end of the first ten years of privatisation, the expectation of having an improved system that would guarantee quality and stable power supply to Nigerians which informed the move in the first place remains a mirage.
“Have we made progress
consistent with the objectives specified under NEPP (National Electricity Power Policy 2001 which kick-started the reforms that led to the privatisation) and in tandem with expectations Of Nigerians, for consistent uninterrupted power? The answer would be a categorical and emphatic ‘No’, we have not,” he said.
He therefore expressed the hope that the gathering would “apply the best intellect, as represented by many of the progressive thinkers of the sector participating here today, to come up with creative and out-of-the box thinking that is urgently needed to turn around the current limitations of NESI”.
The nation’s number one law-maker pledged the commitment of the National Assembly (NASS), particularly the upper legislative (red) chamber, to working with all the NESI operators and
stakeholders in building an environment that would allow for the injection of the massive investment, expertise and creativity that is necessary to move the industry “to our collective
aspiration and goal of consistent and efficient power supply”.
In his speech, the DG, Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Alex Okoh, also agreed that the successes expected of the reforms did not materialise, but added a caveat that instead of engaging in blame games over what has transpired, the way forward should be the focus of the deliberation by stakeholders at the event.
Several others gave their goodwill message, but all the speakers agreed on one thing – that the objectives of the reforms were not realised at the end of the first ten years of privatisation.
The power sector reforms over the years culminated in the privatisation of the generation and distribution sub-sectors of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) on 1st November, 2013, exactly ten years ago.