Expert Charges Tinubu To Overhaul Nigeria’s Electricity Sector
The national grid will continue to collapse until sound policies and experts are brought into Nigeria’s power sector.
This is the view of Prof Chinweike Ubah, a development economist and commentator, while reacting to the perennial collapse of Nigeria’s electricity sector for over a decade.
According to him, the privatisation of the nation’s power sector was not done on merit, hence those who have no business in electricity management hijacked the system for their selfish gains
Prof Ubah said the dwindling power generation and the transmission lapses showed that Nigeria had limited investments in the sector beyond regulations.
He said, “The right policies are not in place. We could have gotten the right equipment if the investors were serious. Nigeria unbundled Power Holding Company of Nigeria, and the Discos could not get the required equipment to operate beyond the ones they inherited from the bundled PHCN.
“They boast of having Band A. How many customers on Band A do have power supply for 20 hours per day. They claim they are making profits. Why won’t they when their customers still buy transformers, metres, electric poles and the cables?
“The equipment required to attain electricity operating excellence is not there. Our major problem is policy somersault. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo laid the solid foundation, but his successors changed his policy after spending over 16bn dollars. Nigeria lacks real investors as well as strong policies to attract serious investors.”
He said the nation’s power generation and transmission companies have infrastructural deficits, adding that, “We don’t have the capacity to generate megawatts. And when we generate, the capacity to transmit isn’t available. The reason is simple: those that were given licences to distribute electricity are not experts. There is a multiplicity of crises along Nigeria’s electricity value chain.”
He also attributed the declining state of Nigeria’s power sector to poor regulations, asking “How many times has the National Electricity Regulatory Commission defended the poor customers?”
He advised President Bola Tinubu to completely overhaul the sector and experts to manage it to enable Nigeria to regain her place in Africa’s economic rating.
Expert Charges Tinubu To Overhaul Nigeria’s Electricity Sector is first published on The Whistler Newspaper
