Lagos clears legal hurdles for 4,000mw embedded power

JOSHUA BASSEY
Lagos State is inching closer to attaining 24-hour power supply through a collaborative investment in undertakings which will generate 4,000 megawatts embedded power to run its economy.
The state took a major step forward in this direction, Thursday, with the signing of the Lagos State Electricity Power Sector Reform Law by Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, thus setting the legal framework for the power project. This will see to the generation of 1,000 megawatts this 2018, and 3,000 megawatts in 2022, through a Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement, leveraging on gas from the Aje oil field in Badagry.
Ambode also signed the amended Land Use Charge Law 2018 and five others, including cancer research institute law, amended customary court law, Yoruba language law, cooperative college law, and the school of nursing law.
The land use charge law as amended seeks to consolidate all property and land based rates/charges into a single property charge. It also sets the modalities for levying and collection of land use charge in the state
The laws, according to the government, are expected to significantly contribute to the growth and development of Lagos as well as facilitate the current administration’s vision of a globally competitive mega city.
The state commissioner for energy and mineral resources, Wale Oluwo, who spoke on the significance of the power sector reform, said the new law provided the legal framework that would engender investors’ confidence as they collaborate with government in the generation of 3,000mw power.
Aside this, the law criminalises energy theft and makes provision for jail terms for person(s) or organisation involved in power theft. It will also empower electricity distribution companies to upgrade their infrastructure and collect appropriate bills, opens up the space for investment in gas supply to efficiently power the energy sector.
“With the law now in place, if anybody imports fake or substandard electricity equipment into Lagos, he is liable to prosecution,” said Oluwo.
He was corroborated by Kehinde Bamigbetan, commissioner for information, and Adeniji Kazeem, commissioner for justice, who restated the determination of government to further deepen investment in the economy.
The amended land use charge will be payable on all property except those exempted under Section 12 of the law. The exemptions include: Property owned and occupied by a religious body and used exclusively as a place of worship or religious education; public cemeteries and burial grounds as well as property used as a registered educational institution certified by the commissioner of finance to be non-profit making; palaces of recognised traditional rulers in the state, and any property specifically exempted by the governor via his executive powers by notice published in the state official gazette.
Exempted property becomes subject to land use charge if the use of such property changes to one that does not qualify for exemption.
The land use charge reflects the state government’s efforts to tackle the issue of multiplicity of property taxes and levies between the state and local governments, especially as the imposition of land use charge on a landed property implies that all other state laws that impose tax on properties would cease to apply to such landed property.