Be patient, Fashola tells power investors

Minister of Power Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Raji Fashola, has urged investors in the power sector to be patient with electricity consumers or leave the sector for those willing to invest.
The Minister made the call during the 11th Monthly Power Sector & Stakeholder Meeting held in Ikeja West Transmission Station, Ipaja, in Lagos yesterday.
While speaking, Fashola described jobs in the power sector as a “thankless” one but worthwhile at the end.
“We must use this year to tell our staff that without our customers, they don’t have a job, and if you are not in a good mood, don’t pick the telephone.
“Without the customers and the consumers there is no business and I think that all of us in the public and private sector must understand that. If you don’t have the skin and the patient to serve, leave.
“It is a thankless job but it is no good undertaking to serve,” Fashola said.
He said that the Ministry of Power is aware of investors’ challenges, promising that the government is making efforts to address them. He, however, added that investors must be willing to carry some share of the burden.
“I am conscious of the challenges operators in the sector face. My team and I are working as hard as we can to make the environment more responsive to you and as I have said and will repeat that as pioneers you will carry some burden.
“You will have to sacrifice perhaps more than what you have done but I am optimistic that it will get better, I am optimistic that we can win together and we can win for the Nigeria people,” the Minister said.
On the issue of liquidity, the minister assured operators in the sector that work has commenced with development, local and international partners to resolve the issue.
He, however, noted that the partners would have shown commitment and inspiring appetite to play in the market.
“We are trying to see what we can do together in order to bring the liquidity issues under some control and from there eventually solve it.
“I am happy also to announce that our partners in government are also inspiring understanding of what the challenges are. So it is quick decision making now, collaboration, decisions will be fair but firm and we expect people would respect the decisions and also processes to re-engaged as they come.

“I think it is important to set this meeting to set these agenda of what to expect in the New Year. We have listed and identify what the problems are, what we are trying to finalize is what comes first, what follows, what runs concurrently because some of them have domino effort that is, if you solve one problem, you will solve three together.
“We will keep in constant touch with you as they evolve, to hear your side we will use this meeting to continue to share the details of what we are seeing and to hear what you are experiencing.
“As a public appeal, we need to do whatever is possible to do in our various distribution areas to improve the quality of service to continue to train personnel, to recognize that the customer is king and even if we cannot provide or solve the problem, we own it a duty to explain what we are doing, we own it a duty to fish a few staff not all because we some dedicated staff,” he said.