March 29:
Vice-President, Namadi Sambo, has directed the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) to take over all completed transmission lines from the Niger Delta Power Holding Company Ltd (NDPHC) and commence immediate distribution of electricity in the country.
He gave the directive at the Presidential Villa on Friday when he met with the Board and Supervising Management of the TCN, chaired by Ibrahim Dahiru Waziri.
The Vice-President said that with the existing infrastructure, a transaction adviser has been appointed and efforts were being made to transfer all the transmission investments of the NDPHC to TCN.
“However, the NDPHC will be a major investor and also on the board TCN,” he stated.
Sambo said: “There are a lot of challenges, particularly as government is keeping the TCN as a government-owned entity as part of a new strategy for bringing in Manitoba to manage and transfer technology to our local experts.”
He assured the TCN of government’s continued support and partnership toward achieving its set goals, and promised government’s continued support to the company, including the issue of inadequate funding raised by the TCN chairman.
According to Sambo, “Government needs to address three sectors in order to achieve the objectives of adequate power supply.
“They are financing the power sector; addressing properly the generation, transmission distribution and development of gas infrastructure for gas supply; and the production of hydro-power plants to meet the planned objectives of the vision 2020:20.”
The Chairman of TCN had commended the Vice-President’s efforts to revamp the power sector, which he said clearly manifested in the International Financing Conference on Power.
He lamented the funding difficulties the company was encountering and decried the uninsured status of the company’s infrastructure, which exposes them to risk situations in emergencies such as accidents.
Waziri, therefore, requested for adequate funding and a multi-dimensional approach to solving issues in the power sector.
Managing Director of NDPHC, James Olotu, appealed to the Vice-President for the current status and costs of all the NDPHC transmission projects to be transferred to the TCN.
Others present at the meeting were the Chairman of Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Sam Amadi, and Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Power, Godknows Igali.
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