Lawan laments power sector privatisation, liberalisation deal
President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan on Monday lamented the privatisation and liberalisation of the nation’s power sector which he said has not yielded expected results.
This is as he charged the Senate Committee on Power to look at what has happened to the agreement signed in 2013 on the privatisation of the sector.
Lawan gave the charge while declaring open an investigative public hearing on power sector recovery plan and the impact of COVID-19 pandemic organized by the Senate Committee on Power.
He said the expectations of the federal government and Nigerians was that the power sector after privatisation would be far better, but lamented that the expectation was far from being fulfilled.
The Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) was in 2013 unbundled to pave way for the emergence of six Generating Companies (GenCos), 11 Distribution Companies (DisCos) and one Transmission Companies of Nigeria. Both the GenCos and DisCos are fully privatised outfits.
The Senate President said: “When you have privatization, you have share purchase agreement. This investigation should look at what has happened. What are the responsibilities and the obligations of the federal government in the agreement? What is Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) supposed to do?
“And equally and very important, what are the successful investors who are given 11 DisCos and six GenCos supposed to do and within which time framework?
“Government should not be given free money. N1.8 trillion has been given to DisCos maybe in their books. The actual money might have been given to the GenCos.
“N1.8 trillion is a huge amount of money. Is it part of the share purchase agreement that we should be given this kind of money or what are we supposed to do as a government? What is our obligation?
“Government cannot afford to just spend money that you hardly understand why it is given and I will advise the executive here, next time, if there will be any next time to give such money, bring it to the National Assembly for approval.
“We want to be very critical on how funds are given to privatized enterprises. We expect that by now, our level of generation, transmission and distribution would have been far better.”
Lagos seals 56 illegal structures in Ikoyi, Banana Island
Lawan however, said he would rather call for a review of the privatisation deal and not for an outright cancellation of the deal, adding that “why I will not call for an outright reversal of the privatization that was done in 2013, I believe the time has come for us to review it.
“If those who are in charge now don’t have the financial muzzle, please let’s admit that we should look for partners who will come in with more funds.
“If government cannot fulfil its obligations because it holds 40 per cent, let it divest so that we don’t hold this sector unnecessarily stagnant,” Lawan said.
The Senate President said Nigeria cannot make any serious, meaningful and sustainable progress without power.
The Senate President said the National Assembly wants to see a power sector that provides steady and regular supply of power because that is what the country needs.
