From ADEWALE SANYAOLU, Abuja
The Federal Government has announced the signing of contracts with bid winners of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) successor companies, leading to their eventual take-over effective today. The Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo, disclosed this to journalists at the on-going Nigerian Oil and Gas Conference in Abuja, yesterday.
According to him: “Hopefully, by Thursday, most of the contracts would be signed at a very significant function. Most of the companies that won the bid to purchase the generation companies (Gencos) and the distribution companies (Discos) will be signed on,” he said. He, however, assured the prospective owners of the PHCN successor companies that the Federal Government would ensure that all government agencies settle their outstanding bills before the eventual take over in mid-year. “To ensure that regulatory agencies, market operators, system operators and MDAs are consistently delivering on their respective mandate and to ensure that payment are being made as at when due.
“It has always been a problem that many of the government agencies owing a lot of billions. This is not going to continue as the privatisation enters into conclusion,” he stated. The Roadmap to Power Sector that was launched by President Goodluck Jonathan in August 2012 was based on removing obstacles to private sector investment to ensure accelerated development of the Nigeria’s electricity market; and to improve service delivery. Meanwhile, the country has recorded a total loss of 620 megawatts per hour of electricity in three months, between October and December 2012, arising from differences in average electricity generated and average electricity consumed during the period. This was contained in a report obtained from the fourth quarter economic report released by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
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