Nigeria will not privatise the country’s transmission company, TCN, a Director at the Energy Department of Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Mr Yunana Malo has said.
Speaking at a media briefing last Monday in Abuja, Mr Malo explained that what is rather going to happen is that the bureau would put TCN on concession in order to get maximum value.
He said the transmission was the weak link in the power reform, as the generation, which was privatised, had since attracted a lot of investments, making it more efficient.
He said the generation capacity had improved, adding that 60 percent of the distribution segment had also been partially privatised and was beginning to pick up through the reforms of the Federal Government.
“The seemingly weak link in the transmission component, it is still 100 percent owned by the FG.
“The idea is to think outside the box and bring in solutions that will make the transmission component service the value chain, and make it more efficient.
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“Government is not thinking of privatising; it is thinking of ways and means that the private capital can be brought into the transmission component without giving out the ownership of Transmission Company,” Vanguard quoted Mr Malo as saying during the press briefing.
Mr. Malo explained that the bureau would concession the transmission segment, “so that we can have somebody building the high tension lines, covering areas that have not been reached or to maintain the existing ones to get maximum value, to move from the radial system we have today into a mesh.
“So the idea is not to privatise but to reform and make it efficient, bringing in private sector operational modalities within the transmission company.”
Source:www.energynewsafrica.com