The House of Representatives on Wednesday asked the National Council on Privatization to immediately stop the planned privatization of Afam Power Plant.
The House also mandated its Committee on Privatization and Commercialization to summon the Director-General of the Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE), Alex Okoh, to ascertain the status of the transaction, in order to determine further legislative action.
The resolution followed a motion on notice by Ayodele Oladimeji (APC, Lagos) on the “need to investigate the planned privatization of Afam Power Plant by Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE).”
Oladimeji informed the House that the BPE has resumed the privatization of Afam Power Generation Company, as a scrap asset, to finance the 2018 budget.
He expressed dismay that both the Sapele and Ughelli Powers Plants, which were privatized by the BPE in 2013, are now in dire financial distress along with other Generating Companies (GENCOS).
He said the situation had resulted in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) intervention fund of N701 billion Payment Assurance Guarantee (PAG) due to expire in December, 2018.
“I am concerned that the sale of Afam Power Plant as a scrap asset will not yield the result envisaged by the Federal Government; in fact, it will likely join other 37 non-performing privatized public enterprises,” the lawmaker warned.
He added that most of the GENCOs are still faced with problems of lack of gas, weak infrastructure and serious liquidity crises.
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