The Federal House of Representatives on Friday called on the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) to prioritise Executive Order on local content by ensuring local engineers with capacity are mobilised to be part of jobs in the transmission infrastructure maintenance and management.
Magaji Ayua ,the Chairman House Committee on Power said this during an oversight visit to the TCN in Abuja,directing the company not to allow donor agencies who assist them with grants not to detect foreign companies to get transmission project contract.
“The President has signed the Executive Order on local contenting directing that no project should be giving out to foreign companies without Nigerian content. My committee would look into this critically in adherence to the Presidential Executive Orders.Nigeria is for Nigerians and Nigeria first.
“No matter how Technical the project is,there could be technical partnership agreement, “he noted.
He emphasised that nobody would say he would give us loan and dictate for us whom we shall give the contract. We want to bring down the unemployment and this is one of the ways we could address that concern.
Speaking further on the oversight visit ,he said,”We are basically here to note four things: First you have a multi lateral way of getting funding for the projects you do and through appropriation.We want to know the projects that were done in 2019,how much you got in 2019 in terms of budget releases,how much you got.”
“We want to find out how much project was executed in 2019,and how much Internally generated revenue,and what are the money used for and which project they were used for.The loans you got and possible grant also and how much was it in 2019 ans what was it done with.”
“We are here to ensure things are done property.We have to commend the Transmission Company of Nigeria, so far you have been doing well but there is also room for improvement.
Magaji noted that the complexity of this sector lies in the harmonious relationship of value chain players, adding, “If for instance they said that the TCN has a wheeling capacity or Transmission of 10000 megawatts,while the Discos can only take not more than 3000 and we are paying for undelivered capacities,then something has to change.”
Earlier in his remarks, Sule Abdulaziz the Managing director of the Transmission Company of Nigeria whose first official assignment is to host the House of Representatives members said the immediate focus of the new management would be on replacing existing equipment which are failing and prone to breakdowns.
“Regular proactive maintenance processes will be institutionalised to reduce the occurrence and impact of breakdowns.We are going to prioritise on expanding our capacity via new projects that will span across the entire nation. These are some of the considerations that will help in achieving the goal in improving the performance of the transmission sector.
