Power firms blame FG for under-performance
’Femi Asu
Exactly three years after the
privatisation of the nation’s power sector, electricity distribution
companies have said the failure of the Federal Government to fulfil most
of the commitments made to the investors has affected the performance
of the sector.
The Association of Nigerian Electricity
Distributors, an umbrella body of the Discos, stated this at a press
conference in Lagos on Tuesday
ANED also expressed shock over the call
by the President of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, for the reversal
of the privatisation of the power assets.
The Executive Director, ANED, Mr. Sunday
Oduntan, said the government had promised that there would be
cost-reflective tariffs from day one as specified under the performance
agreement it signed with the investors.
“This never happened as the R2 customer
class was politically frozen and collection losses removed in 2015.
Sculpting or under-recovery of cost will result in N164bn revenue
shortfall for the period of 2016 through 2018,” he said.
Oduntan added that the tariffs had yet
to reflect the devaluation of the naira and the rise in inflation from
the assumed nine per cent to the current 17.9 per cent.
He said the government had pledged
credit-worthiness support of power purchase agreements by the Nigerian
Bulk Electricity Trading Plc, but the “generation companies are owed in
excess of N184bn.”
Oduntan said there had been little or no
improvement in gas supply, contrary to the government’s promise of
increased access to the commodity.
He stated that another commitment was
that full losses would be recognised in tariffs, adding that real losses
were higher than what was contained in tariffs due to non-payment of
debts owed by government Ministries, Department and Agencies; customers’
non-payment and theft of electricity; and non-implementation of minor
review.
He said the generation levels expected
between 2014 and 2016 were 5,000 megawatts to 7,500MW, but regretted
that it had been hovering between 2,000MW and 3,000MW in recent times
due to gas pipeline vandalism and transmission wheeling constraints.
Oduntan said the Federal Government had
committed to provide subsidy support of N100bn for the power firms, but
that nothing had been injected as provided for under the Multi-Year
Tariff Order 2.0.
ANED said its attention had been drawn
to a number of statements credited to Dangote from a speech he delivered
at the Senior Executive Course 38 at the National Institute of Policy
and Strategic Studies, Kuru, Plateau State.
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