Nigeria has commenced reviewing of the operational licences of electricity generation (GenCos) and distribution companies (DisCos) due to poor service delivery in the sector.
Nigeria’s power sector was partially privatised in November 2013 with the government handing over the ownership of the DisCos and a large number of GenCos to the private sector.
Despite this, however, the power supply remains poor with the government having to bail out the sector with almost N2 trillion due to poor financial state.
In a statement to mark his 50 days in office, the country’s new power Minister, Engr. Abubakar Aliyu explained that the government was aware of the challenges facing the sector and was working to resolve them.
He stated that the government was “working tirelessly as we explore opportunities that will, in the short term, deliver the much-desired quick wins whilst still focusing on the long-term objectives of increasing the available power, improving the quality of services, attracting the much-needed investment, promoting efficiency, competition and growth and lastly ensuring transparency and accountability in the value chain of the power sector.
“The Ministry is intensifying performance monitoring of the licensees and the licensing regime, especially their revised Performance Improvement Plans (PIP) to have a better understanding of why some critical stakeholders are performing below expectation.
“We shall be taking a careful and detailed look at issues of policy, capacity and the technical requirement, amongst other things.
“One very critical concern that we must address in this performance monitoring process is to find out if the terms for granting of licenses were onerous,” he added.