DisCos new owners to inject $1.8bn – BPE

BY EMMA UJAH, ABUJA BUREAU CHIEF
ABUJA—The new private sector investors who
bought the electricity Distribution Companies,
DisCos, are to inject a total of $1.8 billion into
the operations of the companies.
The Director_-General of the Bureau of Public
Enterprises, BPE, Mr. Benjamin Ezra Dikki
disclosed this at a presentation on the future
of the industry in Abuja.
A statement issued by the spokesman, Mr.
Chigbo Anichebe quoted Mr. Dikki as
explaining that the funds injection would be
for “metering, expansion, connection of new
consumers, safety, health and environmental
issues. “
MEETING—From left: Permanent Secretary,
Ministry of Power, Ambassador Godknows
Igali; Technical Committee Chairman, National
Council on Privatisation, Mr. Atedo Peterside;
Director General, Bureau of Public Enterprises,
Benjamin Dikki and Senior Special Assistant to
the Vice President, Mr Umar Sani, during a
briefing after meeting on National Council on
Privatisation at the Presidential Villa in Abuja
on Friday.
The BPE boss also explained that the decision
of the Federal Government to engage Manitoba
Hydro International, MHI, as management
contractors for the Transmission Company of
Nigeria, TCN, was to place TCN on the path of
best practice, reliability and self sustenance to
ensure predictability and security of the
transmission system.
He said that a well-managed TCN was critical to
the success of the multi-billion Naira National
Integrated Power Project, NIPP, which is
expected to give the nation’s electricity power
supply a quantum leap in the next few years.
He added that the management contractors
“would bring in invaluable experience on the
sector development, provide clear targets and
incentives, build capacity of TCN staff to
prepare them for future roles,
post_management contract and completion of
the unbundling and independent operation of
the system and market operator functions into
an independent system operator, thus allowing
the entities to concentrate on their core
functions”.
He disclosed that the contract which was in
the second year of the contract, had so far
delivered 18 milestone reports on different
facets of how TCN would be transformed.
On the implications of the NIPP on the power
transaction, Dikki said the transaction had
shown that there was a strong demand from
private sector to participate in the generation
and distribution sectors of the electricity
industry.