A leading player in Nigeria’s power sector, Dr. Chukwueloka Umeh, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Century Power Generation Limited, has advocated that Discos have to be auctioned again for the public to start getting value from the sector.
According to Umeh, aside from solving the liquidity problem that ails the sector, the government must treat power as a commodity and not a social responsibility if the gains of the power privatization done eight years ago is to be felt by the citizenry.
He stated this as a guest on a monitored television programme where the issue of ‘Growing Debt base; Analysing Banks – DisCos battle, Electricity Market Shortfall’ was dissected.
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Umeh, who is also an Executive Director at the Nestoil Group stated that the challenges in the power sector will always be there every year if the government does not realise that it has no business in the sector, hence should let the sector develop before encumbering it with regulations that are stifling it.
‘’The horse must always be before the cart and the reverse should not be the case. Investors should be encouraged to come to the market with a cost-reflective tariff that will ensure a free market, rule of law is respected by all. Regulations can come after the sector has been developed, not before. This is the only way the current administration can make Nigerians see value’’, he asserted.
He said Nigerians are ready to pay for regular power supply and the gap in the space is being filled by some state governments, like Akwa Ibom’s Ibom Power, with various power projects that cannot be more than 500 Megawatts due to their nature. He urged the state governments to create an enabling environment in their states where private investments will work and not smother it.
