Buhari
While speaking at the closing plenary of the Nigerian Economic
Summit (NES) in Abuja on Thursday, President Muhammadu Buhari, explained
why his administration cannot cancel the privatisation of the power
sector done by the Goodluck Jonathan administration despite its apparent
failings.“The privatisation is a complex investment that government
cannot wake up to cancel the contract, because there are consequences,” Buhari said.
According to Premium Times, the president who was represented by
the Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed,
said his administration’s decision to review the power sector
privatisation is to open up the sector for investors with the financial
capacity and technical expertise to inject fresh investments to turn the
sector around.
Since November 2013 when the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN
successor companies were handed over to their new owners, Nigerians
expected improved stable supply of electricity, with government
targeting the generation capacity of 10,000 megawatts, MW.
According to Premium Times, Buhari said owners of privatised power
companies have not been able to realize the objectives for which they
acquired the assets.
“The power sector has been privatised. Investors are holding
large portions of the shares. But the privatisation has not worked well,
in the sense that what government sort to achieve, by way of
development of the power sector, has not yet happened,” the
President said, adding that government has decided to meet with the
operators of the sector, starting with the distribution companies,
DISCOs, to restructure their equity holdings.
He said the restructuring would involve the government and other
private operators ceding some of their holdings to new investors to
inject fresh funds and expertise to help turn the sector around in a way
that would serve Nigerians.
“The process is ongoing to negotiate with the existing owners
to restructure the investment to determine the right level of holding to
give up for another round of sales. The equities would be sold to
investors with the resources and capacity to bring in the level of
investment to turn around the sector."
He described as false the privatisation of assets, which saw the
defunct PHCN broken into 11 distribution companies and nine generation
companies as well as one transmission company, pointing out that false
buyers of the power companies were owing more than they could pay.
The situation, the president said, has been so bad that if the
banks were not strong, they could have gone under from the weight of the
debt from the power sector.
Mrs. Ahmed said government was committed to reviewing the
recommendations from the Summit and urgently plan towards immediate
implementation of NES 23 to fast track the realization of the objectives
of the National Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP).
The summit, which had the theme: “Opportunities, Productivity & Employment: Actualising the Economic Recovery & Growth Plan,” focused on five areas.
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