Stakeholders in the nation’s power sector have expressed divergent views on the call by the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu, for the Federal Government to revisit the privatisation of the sector.
The Federal Government handed over the nation’s generation and distribution companies to private investors on November 1, 2013, following the unbundling of the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria.
Tinubu, at the 11th Bola Tinubu Colloquium in Abuja on Thursday, urged the government to revisit the privatisation of the sector, saying the country could not afford to be too legalistic about it.
He advised the government to bring experts together for a more constructive reform to improve power generation, transmission and distribution by any means necessary.
He also said the government should push for an end to the practice of estimated billing, adding that people were being forced to pay for the electricity they did not consume.
He described estimated billing as “a vestige of the past that should not accompany Nigerians into the future.”
The single most important sector for the government’s focus is infrastructure. The most important of our infrastructural demand is power,” he said, adding that affordable and reliable power would drive industrialisation and boost job creation.
Tinubu said, “I believe the second Buhari administration will work to increase electricity generation, transmission and distribution by more than 50 per cent within the next four years. It is a challenge we must go through and we will be held responsible for it. We require serious and bold reforms to achieve this.
Source: Punch Newspaper
