Senate blames power sector crisis on poor coordination

The Senate on Tuesday said the crisis in the nation’s power sector was due to the lack of adequate coordination among the operators in the value chains.

The Chairman, Senate Committee on Power, Gabriel Suswam, stated this at the end of a three-day investigative hearing on the power sector recovery plan in Abuja.

Suswan noted that the nation’s bid to achieve stable electricity supply could be a mirage if the firms responsible for power generation, distribution and transmission, continued to indulge in the current blame game among them.

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Stakeholders in the sector, particularly the management of generation companies, distribution companies and the Transmission Company of Nigeria, had presented contradictory positions on the poor state of power in the country.

The Gencos blamed the Discos for not remitting adequate funds from the power generated and sold to them as well as lacking in capacity to distribute generated power.

But reacting to their various submissions, Suswan said the Senate was determined to ensure sanity in the system.

He said, “You will discover that from what we have heard for the past three days, there is a serious misalignment in the power sector.

“In spite of the huge expenditure, we have been unable to achieve anything because there is no proper coordination.

“We have listened to presentations from the government side and the operators and we have seen that there is no alignment anywhere and that is the problem.”


He added, “The blame game among them has to stop. Once there is an alignment and proper coordination, there will be sanity and progress.

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"If Gencos generate 13,000 megawatts and transmission is able to transmit at least 10,000 megawatts, and Discos are able to absolve all with proper tariff, it will make the sector solvent.

“Once there’s money in the sector, the other potential investors will come in. The banks will be able to also put in more money so that the sector will begin to run on its own.

“Where we are now, it will be unthinkable that government will stop providing the intervention. Once that stops, everything will collapse.

“We are spending huge amount of money paying for debt that is already owed.”

Suswan said it imperative now to focus on how to address the issue of infrastructural deficit in the power sector.