Electricity Distribution Companies, DISCOs, have petitioned the Bureau
of Public Enterprises, BPE, seeking to return the privatized power
assets to government over what they considered as undue interference in
their operations.
Investigations by Vanguard, yesterday,
indicated that their action was propelled by recent developments,
especially the planned forensic audit of the operations of DISCOs and
the directive of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, that banks should
commence collection of tariff, targeted at enabling them recover huge
loans granted them to buy the assets.
The Director, Research and Advocacy, ANED, Mr. Sunday Oduntan, could not be reached, yesterday, for comments.
But
the managing director of one of theDISCOs, who pleaded anonymity, said:
“I am aware that the DISCOs have reported the situation to BPE. Many
people and institutions have not been fair to the DISCOs.
“The
privatization of the assets was based on an agreement to be kept by the
DISCOs and the government, which still has 40 per cent interest in the
companies.
“In looking into our operations, the first thing
should be to find out the content or details of that agreement. The next
thing should to look at the steps taken by all parties to comply.
“As
far as we are concerned, the DISCOs have done a lot to comply with the
terms of the agreement because without such compliance, the
privatization would not work.
“It is not fair for some
authorities to start talking about forensic audit and using alternative
options to collect the tariff, which is the major obligation of the
DISCOs.
“We have reviewed these and other issues severally among
ourselves. We have also made our position known to relevant government
agencies, including BPE and the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory
Commission, NERC.”
No word from DISCOs on pull-out, says BPE boss
In
his reaction, the Director-General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises
(BPE), Mr. Alex Okoh, said that his organisation has not received any
communication from the DISCOs to the effect that they want to relinquish
the distribution companies.
His words: “We are not in receipt of any such communication from any DISCO.
“There
have been efforts towards transparency in the collection of revenue in
the sector which was why the CBN gave the directive to banks on the
collection of electricity revenue.
“There are discussions between the DISCOs and relevant stakeholders and these discussions have been constructive.”
However,
briefing reporters after the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC)
meeting in the State House recently, the Minister of Power, Mr. Saleh
Mamman, had said whereas Nigeria currently generates 13,000 megawatts of
electricity, it transmits 7,000 to DISCOs, while the distribution
companies could only distribute 3,000 megawatts to end-users.
According
to him, DISCOs have continued to demonstrate a show of incapacity,
inefficiency and dishonesty in the distribution of power to consumers,
despite the huge investments made into the sector by the federal
government since the privatisation of the power sector in 2013.
DISCOS have failed, says NECAN
In
a telephone interview with Vanguard yesterday, Secretary-General,
Network for Electricity Consumers Advocacy of Nigeria, NECAN, Mr. Uket
Ogbonga, said: “We have been reliably informed that the DISCOs have
declared their readiness to hand over power assets back to government,
alleging that government has failed to keep its own part of the
agreement.
“As far as we are concerned, this may compel the
government to back-pedal on recent actions, especially the forensic
audit, which was recommended by Governor Nasir El- Rufai-led Committee
and the CBN directive, urging banks to take over tariff collection in
order to recover loans extended to the DISCOs.
“The government,
which holds 40 per cent in the privatised companies, should not withdraw
for some reasons. Nigerians need to know the true state of affairs in
the DISCOs. We need to know the number of consumers each DISCO controls.
We need to know the amount they generate as tariff monthly. We need to
know how these monies are deployed.”
The secretary, who noted
that the DISCOs had earlier threatened to go to court before taking the
BPE option, said: “The DISCOs have failed to live up to the expectation
of the public since privatisation. The banks should go ahead to collect
the tariff. It is in the best interest of the nation.”
Power outage
Investigation
by Vanguard weekend showed that some parts of Lagos, especially the
suburbs, did not have supply throughout the weekend.
The
management of Ikeja DISCO could not react officially yesterday, but an
informed source in the company, said: “Under the current arrangement,
all customers would not have access to the same hours of power. We
extend more hours of service to customers who have the capacity to pay
more than others.”
CSO cautions FG on policies that can hurt economy
Reacting
to the alleged decision of DISCO to pull out from the power sector
following government’s policies, the Convener, Concerned Nigerians
Group, CN, Deji Adeyanju, Sunday, cautioned the Federal Government on
policies that might hit the economy badly.
Adeyanju said: “The
approach of the government is not well thought out. If you look at it
people have invested billions in these DISCOs, and government should not
do anything that would make people pull out from the country because
our economy is so badly hit. Whatever policies government policies show
to these investors it will determine how market forces will react.”
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