File photo of a power plant
The inability of the federal government to consistently fund the country’s power sector will lead to abandoned power projects and avoidable waste of economic resources.
It would also worsen the current epileptic power supply in the country, a major operator of the Nigerian power sector has warned.
The Chief Executive Officer, Power Systems and Automation Solutions Limited, Engineer Ifesie Ikechukwu Boniface who gave the indication in Abuja, lamented the inconsistencies associated with funding of the power sector.
Discussing the viability of privatising the country’s power sector, he said the sector was prematurely privatised and Nigeria is now facing the consequences.
Engr. Boniface said “Now, the task of power generation is in the hand of private investors, yet government continues to set targets for the country in terms of how many megawatts Nigeria will generate in the near future, yet it is not in the business of power generation. It is like paying lip service because government is not responsible for power generation and cannot decide the pace for private sector investors.”
According to him, “investors are afraid of investing in power generation because country’s installation capacity is not guaranteed. A point of note is that every stage in power sector business involves very huge investment. So no investor is willing to spend funds generating power that cannot be saved.”
