By Energy Worth
The House of Representatives has mandated its Committee on Power to investigate the Power Sector Recovery Programme (PSRP) to resolve the incongruities in the draft of the programme.
This was sequel to unanimous adoption of a motion by Rep. Abubakar Ahmed (Gombe-APC) on Thursday at plenary.
Speaker of the House, Mr Yakubu Dogara, directed the committee to report back to the house within four weeks.
Earlier, Ahmed had one the motion, said that inefficiency had bedevilled the power sector in the country in spite of the privatisation of power sector in September, 2013. He added that the sector had failed to deliver value services to the citizens in spite of the huge costs committed into implementing power projects across the country.
According to the lawmaker, power supply has become erratic while many parts of the nation are without electricity supply.
He said that without government’s intervention, the cumulative shortfall of about one trillion naira would put the sector at risk of insolvency, leading to loss of investors’ confidence. Ahmed said that the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing in conjunction with the World Bank and other institutions, had created PSRP.
He said that the programme was designed with a view to attaining financial viability for the sector and to rehabilitate the Nigeria electricity industry.
He said that though PSRP proposed solutions to financial concerns, it did not propose solution for fixing the critical business, infrastructure and technical flaws, which accounted for the failures being experienced in the sector.
Ahmed noted that the programme did not hold private companies accountable for their proportionate share of accountability.
He said that the programme required the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET) to raise debt for funding, being the manager and administrator of the electricity pool in Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry.
