President, Nigeria Consumer Protection Network, Mr. Kunde Olubiyo, at the weekend set an agenda for the Federal Government on the ongoing forensic audit of the 11 electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos) should extend to the generation and distribution subsectors.
Asked to outline areas that the government should look into in the probe of the DisCos, he sought a holistic measure for the entire value chain of the Nigeria Electricity Supply Industry (NESI).
In a text message to The Nation, he urged the government to carry out a financial and technical audit of the entire power sector.
He recalled that between 2013 -2015, the government issued some credit facilities to the privatized power sector.
Olubiyo, who was also a former member, National Technical Investigative Panel on Power System Collapses, said “Government should do a Forensic
Financial Auditting & Technical of the Entire Architecture of the Nigerian Power Sector.”
The government, according to him, should wound down its equity and pull out its 40 per cent stake in the sector.
He was of the view that no individual person, persons or group amongst the present equity holders that has as individual up to 40 per cent stake.
He advised that as the largest shareholder may not need to Escow the Account of the 11 Electricity Distribution Companies but it should pull out after the auditing the firms.
Olubiyo said the present investors in the DisCos should be “conscripted by the Federal Government of Nigeria to using the economic dynamics to force the parent investors to dilute their equity from 60 per cent to 30 per cent. The 30 percent to be held by the 11 Electricity Distribution Companies should be properly registered, properly structured and properly quoted on the floor of the Nigerian Capital Market/ Stock Exchange.
Continuing, he suggested that all the DisCos should also be translated into
a Public Liability Companies ( PLC ) .
The remaining 70 per cent, he said, should be thrown open and be subscribed to viz Initial Public Offerings ( IPOs) and other available financial instruments within the capital market.
According to him, government’s roles in the post privatized electricity sector should be be that of formulation of investor friendly policies, provision of economic stimulus and the much needed fiscal and non- fiscal incentives.
He also asked the government to consider other reforms, which speak to the heart of governance structure, review of regulatory, institutional and legal framework.
He specifically said the “Transmission Company of Nigeria should be unbuddle and broken down into smaller specialized agencies for improvement in service delivery, administrative and operational efficiencies.”
He insisted that the continued retention of the “pre-privatization architecture of TCN as it were, is nothing but a recipe for mishaps and mis – application of the spirit and letters of the privatization exercise.”
He said the TCN should be broken down vide Executive Bill into the Nigerian Market Operator Act 2020, Transmission Systems Provider Act 2020, Independent System Operators 2020 and Transmission Company of Nigeria Amendment Act , 2020 to warehouse and take charge of whatever that may be left of the administrative structure of the present TCN.
Olubiyo submitted that “the Staff of TCN and the Project Designed, Project Conceptualization, Project Monitoring and Evaluation under the TCN presently being undertaken by TCN / PMUs TCN AfDB ( PMU, TCN JICA PMU , TCN World Bank PMU etc . PMUs are Project Monitoring Units presently under TCN .”
He also called for the overhaul of governance and entire structure of the post privatized Nigerian Electricity Sector .
He recalled that the Electric Power Sector Reform Act 2005 was designed to operate as small Sector vide Reform Act and not designed to the exclusive preserve of
NERC ( EPSRA 2005 ).
According to him, the law in itself enacted in 2005 is obsolete and long overdue for a review .
