Behind the Figures By ijeomaNwogwugwu; ijeoma.nwogwugwu@thisdaylive.com
Penultimate week, a few of us inside and outside government, including my managing director, Eniola Bello, whom I had always considered a passive bystander, went into overdrive. We were concerned that a group of investors who had won the bids to acquire the 15 electricity utilities created from the unbundling of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) were about to derail the power reform process.
Under the auspices of the Roundtable of Distribution Companies, otherwise known as Disco Roundtable, they were seeking for an extension of the deadline prescribed by the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) to pay 75 per cent of the purchase price for the electricity utilities. Headed by Dr. Ransome Owan, the pioneer chairman/chief executive of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), who was relieved of his job by the Umaru Yar’Adua administration, they met with the gullible Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo, and lined up a series of conditions which they said must be met before they paid up the outstanding purchase price for the assets.
No comments:
Post a Comment