FG WILL OPEN POWER MARKET TO NEW INVESTORS –OSINBAJO

The Federal Government is creating policies that will open up the nation’s electricity market to new investors in generation, transmission and distribution infrastructure, the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo has said.

Osinbajo said on Thursday that resolving the power supply problem had been a top priority of the Federal Government in the past few years.

He, however, said the current structure of the market could not deliver on the government’s promises for power for domestic and industrial use, adding, “A substantial change of strategy is being pursued.”

Total power generation in the country stood at 3,586.5 megawatts as of 6am on Thursday, data obtained from the Nigeria Electricity System Operator showed.

This confirmed PRENKOLOADED  report on Thursday that the Federal Government was considering repossession of 10 electricity distribution firms as one of the options to rescue the nation’s beleaguered electricity industry.

This is coming ahead of the scheduled final performance review of the private firms that bought into the distribution companies carved out from the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria.

However, document available to one of our correspondents shows that the Federal Government would require up to $2.4bn (N736bn) to repossess the privatised distribution assets from the core investors if it finally takes the decision.

Giving clue that it could recover the assets from the core investors, the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing in a document sighted by one of our correspondents has described the co-owners of the distribution companies as ‘failed investors.’