Senate: No Plan To Reverse Privatisation Of Power Sector
The chairman senate committee on power, Senator Gabriel Suswam says the Senate has no plan to reverse the privatisation of the power sector.
Suswam disclosed in Abuja during the committee’s oversight visit to some governments structures being occupied by the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC).
According to him, the Senate is not pushing for the reversal of privatisation of the sector as that will distal the economy and create issues of trust in the international community.
“We encourage the government to continue with the privatisation as far as the power sector is concerned.
“There are teething problems and those problems will not be the reason for the review of the privatisation that was done and people have bought.
“All we can do is to try to make sure there is enhanced performance in the sector to create efficiency but unfortunately, the process itself started on a faulty note.
“Some of the parameters used were a bit faulty so the sector has been faced with problems that ordinarily would have been avoidable.
“So what we are trying to do in the National Assembly is to identify the core challenges so that we can help the executive in addressing them”, he said.
Suswam said the duty of the National Assembly was to oversight the activities of the other arms of the government.
“This is why we are here today, to see what we have been told by the Nigeria Electricity Liability Management Company (NELMCO) “, he said.
Suswam said that NELMCO told the committee that they handed over some assets AEDC when the company was incorporated and the committee needed to be sure it’s true.
“So here is the assets of government and it’s being occupied by AEDC which is a private company and we are wondering why they are occupying a government property.
“The managing director has told us that they are suppose to be paying rent but because the property has been advertised for sale, they also have the right of first refusal.
“We are satisfied that the building is here and AEDC has accepted that the building belongs to government, and that they are tenants here until when they are able to procure it if they win the bid”, he said.
The Managing Director of AEDC, Mr Ernest Mupwaya said the committee was touring the assets that belongs to NELMCO.
Mupwaya said that AEDC was occupying two of the assets, “adding we are interested in procuring them though we are owing NELMCO some rent but we are already in discussion to settle the rent.
“We are in talks with NELMCO and as part of showing seriousness. We intend to buy the place”, he said.
