THE Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has identified lack of adequate organisation of activities relating to power generation, inadequate funding, dearth of human capital and inadequate distribution network, as some of the challenges militating against the growth of the country’s power sector.
In a paper titled: “Eliminating the Barriers to the Growth of the Nigerian Power Sector: A Veritable Necessity,” made available to The Guardian, Commissioner-Engineering, Standards and Safety in NERC, Mary Awolokun, said that the corporatisation of the unbundled Power Holding Company Nigeria (PHCN) successor companies had been slow and uncoordinated.
She explained, “in public capital sphere, government funding in the sector is still inadequate and unsustainable with rising macroeconomic costs and escalating OPEX. The successor companies cannot fund their activities and their credit un-worthiness makes it near impossible to acquire external loan to fund activities.
“From the perspective of private capital, rates offered by private banking sector is unattractive, as well as, the conditionalities for debt acquisition from other private capital sources for Independent Power Producers. This is the case with the over 40 licensees, who have acquired licenses from NERC but cannot muster enough financing to operationalise such licenses.”
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