The Nigerian government has disclosed plans to introduce a full commercial structure to drive effective service delivery in the power sector.
Abubakar Aliyu, minister of power made this disclosure on Wednesday, as he marked 50 days in office as the minister of power.
According to him, his administration’s focus was to reinvigorate relevant policies to address the identified setback in the sector which include lack of customer’s satisfaction.
“My immediate focus is how to create liquidity in the electricity market; improve services in terms of hours of supply, billing transparency and accuracy, and wider access to electricity through effective policy, regulation and cooperative engagement with private and public sector operators.
“Through reinvigorating important policies and regulations, especially the eligible customer and related regulations that move the electricity industry from the present interim commercial structure to full commercial structure in compliance with Clauses 25 and 26 of the Act, whereby consumers contract for better services directly with willing GenCos and service providers that are ready to make new investment to deliver better services.
Other programme of focus highlighted by the minister include strengthening the Meter Asset Provider programme to attract investors into metering, mini-grid policy and regulation that allows underserved consumers to partner with investors and contractors to get better services.
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According to him, efforts were ongoing to ensure systematic implementation of the Presidential Power Initiative (PPI).
Recall, Siemens Nigeria and the Federal Government had entered into a power infrastructure revamp agreement in 2020.
He explained that the partnership which is expected to expand Nigeria’s electricity capacity from the current average output 4,500MWh/h to 25,000MW would succeed due to the pedigree of Siemens and their footprint in the global power industry.
“The first phase of the PPI is the upgrading and expansion of the vital infrastructure of the TCN and Discos with the end goal of achieving 7,000MW. This first phase started in earnest this year, with the ongoing pre-engineering phase.
“The selected EPC Contractors will soon be contracted officially so work on the project implementation can commence.
“Reforms take time and require patience to implement, especially in a highly regulated sector like the power sector. I am confident that these reforms, when fully implemented, will bring about the transformational change that we all desire to see in the sector,” he said.
