By Folasade Folarin
Abuja – The Senate Committee on Privatisation, has pledged to liaise with its House of Representatives counterpart to propose a bill to address power losses through vandalism, theft and other criminal acts by unscrupulous elements.
According to a statement by Mr Alex Okoh, Head, Public Communications, Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) in Abuja on Tuesday, the committee Chairman, Sen. Ben Bruce, gave the assurance.
Bruce spoke during a visit to the Ikeja and Eko Distribution Companies and the Egbin Generation Company in Lagos.
The visit was part of the committee’s on-going oversight visits to privatised companies in the country.
The committee chairman said that the vices should be treated as a matter of urgent national importance.
Bruce cautioned against calls for the reversal of the power privatisation in the country.
According to him, such reversal will paint Nigeria as an unserious nation which does not respect the sanctity of contractual agreements, thus scaring away potential investors.
He noted that the privatisation process ought to be beneficial to the government, the investors and the Nigerian tax payers who look forward to reliable and stable power supply.
The committee chairman said the on-going oversight visits had proved him wrong on his initial assumption that the privatisation process was wrong.
“With the benefit of hindsight, I have seen that the crisis in the sector is the necessary outcome of the privatisation.”
He, however, called on stakeholders to address the crisis in the sector, saying that it was very crucial to the economic well-being of the nation.
“The various stakeholders need to meet, brainstorm and think out of the box for a solution to the power crisis.
“There is no problem that is insurmountable; all that is required is the will.”
According to the statement, Bruce expressed the committee’s readiness to assist the executive in resolving the contending issues.
Other committee members expressed concern at the liquidity crisis in the sector, asking why the Generation Companies (Gencos) were not being paid for the power they generated amounting to billions of naira.
They noted that Egbin was being owed about N91.5 billion, yet was expected to operate optimally.
Briefing the committee members, the Acting Director-General of BPE, Dr Vincent Akpotaire, said the privatisation process was widely acclaimed globally as the best, largest and most transparent transaction ever in the power sector.
He said that the inherent post privatisation crises and the macro issues had nothing to do with the transaction process.
Akpotaire said that there were some assumptions like cost reflective tariffs and availability of gas but that they were now absent.
He reiterated the call on investors to look for long term funds to help finance their capital expenditure, to enable them to meet what they committed in the Share Purchase Agreement (SPA) and reduce their collection and commercial losses.
He said it was imperative because their investment was in perpetuity and enjoined the Discos to be more transparent in declaring their collections, to close out negative criticism.
The DG while calling for the aggressive capitalisation of the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trader (NBET), urged it to make more ingenious ways like approaching the Bonds Market for funding.