SAN FRANCISCO, May 20, (THEWILL) – The Senate has called for an immediate reversal of the power sector privatization carried out by the last administration for “failure to deliver.”
President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, made this known as he lamented the terribly poor electricity supply in the country despite the privatization of the sector.
The Senate also urged the Federal Government to suspend the planned increase in electricity tariff scheduled to take effect from July 1, 2020 so as not to escalate the hardship Nigerians are currently suffering due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Adopting a motion sponsored by the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Power, Gabriel Suswam, the upper chamber declared that if the privatization in the power sector was not reversed, Nigeria might stop having electricity in the next 10 years.
Lawan, who presided over the plenary session said: “We gave power to them (power generation and distribution companies) and they still come to the public to ask for funds.
“I think it’s time for Nigeria to consider reversing the privatisation of the power sector or they should just cancel the entire privatisation process completely. If we leave it, we may not have power for another ten years.
“We expected efficiency and something better. The distribution companies have no capacity to supply us power. We shouldn’t continue to give them money. They’re private businesses. We need to review this whole thing. Something is wrong.”
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The Senate also mandated its committee on power to investigate all Federal Government’s interventions in the power sector since the privatization to date with a view to ascertaining the adequacy of such interventions and their desired impact, and to report back within four weeks.
The committee was charged to investigate all market participants in the power value chain and ascertain the level of corporate governance compliance in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) and to report back within four weeks.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) was urged to allow operators in the power sector access to foreign exchange for the procurement of equipment and materials as it is done in the aviation and oil industries.
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