Privatisation
An expert in power, Mr Uket Obonga has called for a comprehensive review of the privatisation of the power sector.
Obonga, who is the National Secretary, Nigeria Electricity Consumers Advocacy Network (NECAN), said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Wednesday.
Obonga said that the privatisation of the power sector was a good idea but was not properly done.
“Handing over the power assets to those who don’t have the capacity to run them is why we are in this mess.
”The idea of privatising the power sector is a good one, but the modalities that were used in the privatisation is where the error is.
”If you say you don’t have the capacity to run the sector and you are calling on private investors to take over, those you are handing over the assets do they have the financial capacity to handle them.
“The managerial and technical capacity that is lacking do these current players or operators have the capacity, my answer is no,” he said.
According to Obonga, Electricity Distributions Company (DisCos) are still unable to meter consumers.
He said that the metering of electricity consumers was a revenue assurance tool in the market.
“ The more meters you deploy, the more you are assured and guaranteed that you are going to sell electricity and get your money back,” he said.
According to him, the power sector is experiencing liquidity in the market because of low metering.
He said that electricity was a viable venture, adding that the problem were models that were adopted in the privatisation process.
According to him, electricity consumers are saddled with the responsibility of providing distribution infrastructure.
He said that communities and individuals are made to buy poles, conductors or wires and even sometimes they buy transformers.
”Even when a transformer gets bad, the Discos are reluctant to repair it and this falls back to the communities to repair or replace these infrastructure,” he said.(NAN)