Jonathan Issues Six-month Ultimatum On Stable Power

President Goodluck Jonathan has served managers of Nigeria’s electricity sector a six-month ultimatum, during which he expects electricity generated to be effectively transmitted and distributed across the country.

Speaking in Abuja yesterday on the president’s latest directive to stakeholders in the power sector, the Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo, stated that the president had asked that results of government’s reforms in the power sector must become palpable to Nigerians across the country by June this year.

“Let me restate that the nexus between availability of power and the socio-economic development of our great nation cannot be over-emphasised.

“The resolution of the problem of inadequate power supply to our people has continued to receive the full attention and support of President Goodluck Jonathan.

“While we celebrate the unprecedented success so far recorded in the reform of the power sector, the yardstick by which consumers measure us is the availability of electricity at the last mile to our homes and businesses.

“I wish therefore to charge all the principal players here today to be committed to ensuring that power supply to our customers is significantly and visibly improved by June this year as already directed by Mr. President.

“Much is expected of us all and the entire nation is waiting for us. The significant investment of the federal government in both material and human resources must translate into improved service delivery during the year.

“Government will no longer tolerate any excuse of non-performance from any of the sector players from both the ministry particularly and our new private sector partners,” Nebo said,

On the new owners of the legacy assets, the minister told them that the ministry and other agencies of government would not hesitate to invoke all relevant clauses in the agreement divesting ownership of the Gencos and Discos to new investors.

“Nigerians must, I repeat, must enjoy the dividends of the reform programme and no one will be allowed to frustrate this vision of Mr. President. We are not going to accept projects to ‘chop money’ or ‘share money’. We are in a paradigm shift now and it is no longer going to be business as usual, but business unusual.

“The process is such that we must only do projects that will add value to our reforms and not white elephant projects,” Nebo charged Waziri to ensure that TCN delivers on its roles in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI).

“To the new chairman and board of TCN, I specifically wish to draw your attention to the critical role of the national grid in a deregulated electricity industry.

“The risk of non-performance by TCN affects not only existing IPPs (Independent Power Plants) and Discos, but also nullifies all our efforts towards creating a conducive investment climate for the sector.

“You must therefore drive the management towards creating a national grid capable of reliably and efficiently evacuating all generated power nationwide.

“The board is also expected to ensure that only prudent investments in transmission lines and substations are approved for implementation. This is no time for projects with only fringe benefits to the national economy,” he said.

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