Idowu Oyebanjo
The event was a sure
delight and the organizers, SPintelligent, did a good job but the most
regrettable part was the conspicuous absence of representatives of NERC, the industry
regulator, and members of the newly formed Nigerian Electricity Consumers’ forum.
To say the least, this was disappointing as most of the discussions centred-on
and around matters relating to these two entities. However, it was nice to have
other key stakeholders like NBET, CBN, local Banks, the Ministry of Power and
representatives from network operators.
A major drawback of the
privatisation process according to fresh claims by the investors is the fact that they were unable
to have access to the asset before taking ownership. This simply means they
were unprepared for the job. No one will invest huge amount of money in a
business of this scale (going by the amount of money they had to pay) and not
insist on carrying out due diligence. This is why the process is facing many
challenges from network delivery point of view. Discos especially have claimed
that the network asset are largely dilapidated than they ever imagined and the
inherited staff lack requisite skills and attitude to turn the situation
around. Enough of rhetorics! we must say. Government no-doubt will have to
provide intervention as recommended in part 1 of these series. A key highlight
was the acceptance by the network operators of responsibility of failing to
meter customers who have paid for such under the CAPMI scheme.
It is important for all
customers to be metered in line with earlier suggestions. The networks need
rejigging to be able to consolidate the gains of the reform process. As we
speak, even if we have increased generation, the transmission network is unable
to carry the electricity produced successfully. Technically speaking, this
leaves no room for discussions around cost reflective tariff (CRT).
Representatives of TCN lamented the spate of bureaucracy and cutting of
“transmission” budget by the National Assembly as the root cause of the
problem. In general, inefficiency, corruption and lack of skilled manpower have
made it practically impossible to improve the net transmission capacity of TCN
network in the last 2 decades. In this regard, Dr Reuben Okeke, DG NAPTIN,
reiterated that the structured training program within the former PHCN was
stopped 22 years ago until government revamped the department in 2009 by
establishing NAPTIN, the national power training institution.
