The Federal Government on Thursday indicated that it would soon review the privatisation of power plants in the country to enable the government restructure their ownership and capacity to deliver value to the people.
President Muhammadu Buhari said this on Friday at the closing of the 23rd Nigerian Economic Summit in Abuja.
He said that the review would involve the restructuring of the ownership of the power plants to ensure that owners who do not demonstrate sufficient capacity to operate the facilities cede their stakes to new investors.
The president, who was represented by the Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, said this was to open up the sector for new investors to bring in fresh capital to make the plants more functional.
The president said negotiations would commence with power generation companies where the country is having the most difficulties in ensuring adequate power supply.
At the opening session, Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo rejected a proposal by one of the operators who urged the federal government to inject more money into the sector by buying more stakes.
Mr. Osinbajo said rather than give fresh funding, current owners of those companies who have no capacity to finance their operations should transfer their equity to fresh investors to help realise that objective.
The chairman of Transcorp Ughelli Power Limited, Tony Elumelu, had urged the Federal Government reconsider refinancing the Electricity Distribution Companies, DISCos by acquiring fresh shares of the firms.
Mr. Elumelu had said injecting fresh capital would check the current situation where operators of these power plants were holding the government to ransom with endless demands.
__________
Follow us on Twitter at @thesignalng
Copyright 2017 SIGNAL. Permission to use portions of this article is granted provided appropriate credits are given to www.signalng.com and other relevant sources.
