Nigeria mulls handing over power utilities to state governments

Nigeria’s government is considering handing over its stake in 11 power utilities to state governments to improve oversight and address the country’s chronic power shortages, the minister of power said on Friday.

The federal government holds a 40% interest in 11 power distribution companies (DISCOs) that were privatised a decade ago, each of which operates a franchise spanning three or more states.

Nigeria’s Minister of Power Adebayo Adelabu said the federal government is open to swapping its shares in the DISCOs for shares in the privately managed Niger Delta Power Holding Co, a separate power firm it jointly owns with the states and local governments.

“We are committed to collaborating closely with the state ministries of power to tackle challenges in the distribution segment, considering its retail nature,” Adelabu said in a post on X.

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation of more than 200 million people, produces a fraction of its installed power generation capacity of 12,500 megawatts, leaving millions of households and businesses reliant on generators for electricity.
President Bola Tinubu, who has embarked on Nigeria’s boldest reforms in decades, signed a new law that allows state governments to generate and distribute power, replacing a previous law that gave only the federal government exclusive rights.
– Reuters

Isaac Anyaogu (Reuters)

Isaac Anyaogu is an Assistant editor and head of the energy and environment desk. He is an award-winning journalist who has written hundreds of reports on Nigeria’s oil and gas industry, energy and environmental policies, regulation and climate change impacts in Africa. He was part of a journalist team that investigated lead acid pollution by an Indian recycler in Nigeria and won the international prize - Fetisov Journalism award in 2020. Mr Anyaogu joined BusinessDay in January 2016 as a multimedia content producer on the energy desk and rose to head the desk in October 2020 after several ground breaking stories and multiple award wining stories. His reporting covers start-ups, companies and markets, financing and regulatory policies in the power sector, oil and gas, renewable energy and environmental sectors He has covered the Niger Delta crises, and corruption in NIgeria’s petroleum product imports. He left the Audit and Consulting firm, OR&C Consultants in 2015 after three years to write for BusinessDay and his background working with financial statements, audit reports and tax consulting assignments significantly benefited his reporting. Mr Anyaogu studied mass communications and Media Studies and has attended several training programmes in Ghana, South Africa and the United States

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