Thirteen years after the Nigerian power sector was privatised under the administration of former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, the country is still in darkness. The exercise was not properly carried out, says an energy expert, Nick Agule, news.ng reports.
Narrating how the country got into this economic sabotage, Agule, who was on Channels Television’s programme Morning Brief on Wednesday, said the process, which was supposed to revive the sector, became a failure, hence rendering electricity generation and distribution ineffective.
Agule said, “How did we get here? The simple answer is that we got here because Nigeria attempted a privatisation of the power sector, and that privatisation was done so badly that it has led us to where we are.”
According to him, successive administrations have tried to resolve the issue but failed due to a lack of understanding of what led to the failed privatisation in the first place.
Agule noted that ordinarily, privatisation of the power sector should attract investors, just as the telecom sector is enjoying the process, but it is a different narrative in the power sector.
“When you privatise, you expect that efficiencies will be built into the system, capital will come into the system, and then money will be made because goods and services will be supplied,” he explained.
Comparing the level of efficiency in the telecommunications sector, the expert noted that the sector witnessed a lot of investment, with active lines skyrocketing from 500,000 to 220 million lines currently.
He added that there is no debt to be paid in the sector, unlike what is going on in the power sector.
He noted, “We when we privatise telecoms, the operators brought in their money invested, they expanded output from a mere 500,000 active lines that night, a was offering us to over 220 million lines today and because of that scale, they are not making a lot money a lot a lot more money They are not depending on government to pay any subsidy.
“There is no debt anywhere, and I’m not dragging anybody for any debt owed them. There is nothing like subsidies, and the telephone is now you’re cheaper than it was on a night. And yet there’s liquidity in the system, and the telcos are paying a lot of money into government coffers.”
Agule lamented that in the power sector, players are still foot-dragging on power generation, which is around 5,000 megawatts, rather than ramping it up to 50,000 megawatts.
He said, “The opposite the direct opposite is the power sector We did a power sector very badly and because of that instead of the power sector scaling up Increasing output from the 5,000 megawatts to maybe 50,000 or a hundred thousand megawatts today, that has not happened, and then we are now in this quagmire where electricity generated and is not even transported is not perhaps even used.”
