Nigeria Content Online

Despite
an installed generating capacity of 5,896 megawatts, Nigeria can barely
evacuate 4,000 megawatts to end users. However, the country currently
subsists on actual generating capacity of about 3,829 megawatts.

Emmanuel
Ezekwere, head, engineering standards and safety division of the
Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), who gave this
insight, said even when Nigeria is able to increase its generation
capacity, much of it would still not get to the end consumers due to
deficient transmission capacity.

He said that is why the sector needs the participation of private investors in order to improve the situation in the sector.

“We
now embark on regular periodic review of policies and regulations in
order to meet expectations of operators in the sector,” Mr. Ezekwere
said.

Mr.
Ezekwere, who represented Imamudeen Talban, NERC administrator, at the
Roundtable on Right to Access Stable Electricity, organised by Social
and Economic Rights Action Center (SERAC) yesterday in Lagos, said
Nigeria can achieve steady power supply, but only with proper planning.

According
to him, licences have been granted to 54 firms for independent power
projects across the country for generation of about 8,997 megawatts.

“Reforms
in the power sector will bring investment opportunities in training,
power generation and expansion, investment in transmission, investment
in supply, and manufacture of ancillary materials required in the power
sector. Most of the things we use in the power sector today are
imported. These are opportunities that are coming up,” Mr. Ezekwere
said.

He
further said companies licenced to build power plants across the
country are expected to provide periodic report to the commission on
its operations, while government has put in place some guarantees that
would safeguard their investment.

“We
have gone round the country and found some firms that have not started
building. They are not in the majority. Those companies we are going to
delist them. The process is on. As I talk to you, we are about to
publish some of those that have not been able to comply with the
reporting update,” he said.

Felix
Morka, executive director of SERAC, said electricity is a human rights
issue which is hinged on the universal right to decent living.

He
said Nigerians need to begin to hold government accountable for the
absence of steady power supply, as this can be linked to the poverty
level and poor living standard of the people.

“Government
in Nigeria has, historically and up till the present, failed miserably
to meet expectations on electricity supply. More than this is the
failure of Nigerians to protestthe failure of electricity. Is it enough
to grumble when it goes off and celebrate when it comes on, as if we
are done a favour?” Mr. Morka asked.

According
to him, while it may be desireable to privatise the sector, it was
equally important for Nigerians to demand accountability for the huge
sums that have been expended in the sector since 1999.

He
said there is no one direction that is the proper perspective to the
issue, as all that Nigerians demand is steady power supply.

“When government proclaims privatization, that in itself is dubious,
because implicit in that is a deliberate effort to avoid some of the
fundamental questions which must be asked and answered in order for
that proposition to become viable and reasonable,” he said.