Nigerian president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Monday, said 10 years post privatization, the power sector key objectives has not been met.
He stated this at the Nigeria Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) Market Participants and Stakeholder Roundtable held in Abuja.
According to him, the sector which was unbundled and privatised in 2013 was solely to improve its efficiency, unlock private sector investments and unleash the potential of the nation through an energized economy.
However, he said 10 years down the line, the national grid only serves about 15 percent of the country’s demand, leaving households and factories to rely on expensive self-generation, which supplies a staggering 40 percent of the country’s demand.
He said below:
“It is the perfect opportunity to reflect as a sector and as Government on the progress achieved and the challenges faced since the unbundling and privatization of the integrated national utility.“10 years on, I believe it is fair to say that the objectives of sector privatization have by and large, not been met.”
While stating that “the total amount of electricity that can be wheeled through the national grid has remained relatively flat in the last 10 years”, he explained that the grid capacity only increased from just over 3000MW to 4,000MW.
He also noted that the Federal Government’s pre-privatization target of 40,000MW in 2020 had also failed.
Tinubu, who spoke through the Special Adviser, Energy and Infrastructure, Office of the Vice President, Sodiq Wanka, attributed the underperformance to deep commercial, governance and operational issues which have continued to plague the sector.
“The sector has suffered from chronic underinvestment, especially in transmission and distribution. Many of the successor utilities of the PHCN have failed to meet their performance improvement targets due to technical and financial capacity issues.
