Power: Experts want review of privatisation

Some experts in the power sector have urged the Federal Government to as a matter of urgency review privatisation of the power sector.

The experts, who spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Sunday, said that privatisation of the power sector was a good idea, but however, added that it was not working.

They said that a comprehensive auditing and review of the sector would form part of efforts to addressing the challenges in the industry.

NAN reports that privatisation of the sector in November 2013, was an initiative of the Federal Government to transfer ownership and management of power assets to private entities.

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The move was to improve efficiency, attract more investments, and enhance overall electricity supply.

Eleven Electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos) and six Generation Companies (GenCos) were formed after the sector was privatised.

However, the transmission arm of the sector was retained by the Federal Government.

Mr Princewill Okorie, the National President, Association for Public Policy Analysis (APPA), said that government should carry out a national audit of the privatisation.

According to him, there should be a national committee to audit the privatisation and to also review it.

Okorie said that the auditing should be carried out on  investments made in infrastructure and  the revenue collected from electricity consumers since  privatisation began in 2013.

“The auditing should  also entail investments by consumers, local government  councils,  state government, Federal Government and the international community.

“Government should carry out a thorough auditing of the privatisation process including investments in infrastructure and how much has been extorted from electricity consumers from inception to date. Look at how much consumers have paid as tariff  from inception till date and how much the investors have invested in the power sector,” he said.

Okorie  said that based on the auditing of the sector, discussion on reversing the privatisation policy would be considered.

According to him, when the privatisation of the sector took off, the conditions or criteria that are to be met by investors have not been met.

“It was not even done on a sincere note and the data used was not correct.`

“How can you privatise without adequate investment and it was done in a way to make the citizens become cash cow.

“Now, the citizens are the ones that are being exploited. What they call privatisation in my opinion is extortion from citizens,” he said.

Okorie said that the audit of the privatisation process would  precede the reversal.