• AEDC: New Presidential Metering Initiative to unlock N1 trillion revenue
A former Director General of the Voice of Nigeria (VON), Mr Osita Okechukwu, has canvassed the immediate nationalisation of the electricity sector of the country.
In a chat with reporters in Abuja, Okechukwu, who is a foundation member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), said it behooves President Bola Tinubu to recapitalise the sector to boost economic growth and industrial development in Nigeria.
He described privatisation of the power sector as a disaster that must not be allowed to hold the country down. He also pointed at increasing energy prices, job losses, and closure of factories as indicators that the situation in the electricity sector was pulling the country backward.
Okechukwu urged Mr President to borrow a leaf from Albert Einstein’s maxim which states that it will amount to insanity to continue expending public funds along profiteering oligopolies and hope to get commensurate electricity output.
He said: “Mr President, we are in an economic crisis like the UK after the Second World War. Labour, a progressive party like APC, to strengthen their economy, nationalised fundamental industries like electricity, and their electricity sector generated 30,000 megawatts in less than 20 years.
“Why can’t we recapitalise with $30 billion to generate 30,000 megawatts in less than 10 years under public ownership? Margaret Thatcher came in the 1980s and privatized, and the cry for public ownership is back in the UK as neoliberal policies, most times, fuel poverty and throw thousands out of jobs.”
He added: “Mr President, please let’s muster the socioeconomic will and borrow $30 billion to generate 30,000 megawatts under public ownership in less than 10 years. It is my considered view that the loan will pay itself, if Mr President nominates credible professionals with proven capacity in delivery and transparency to not only implement this grand national project, but to carry out thorough studies, to establish the investment requirements which holistically will fix the electricity chain. This is the solution provider that will expand the frontiers of the production spirit of Nigerians.”
Relatedly, Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) has highlighted some of the anticipated gains of the Presidential Metering Initiative (PMI), stating that the scheme will unlock about N1 trillion revenue currently tied up in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) due to the large number of unmetered customers.
Managing Director of AEDC, Mr Victor Ojelabi, disclosed this in Lagos on the sidelines of the West Africa Innovation Awards 2024, where Abuja Disco was awarded the Most Customer-focused Electricity Distribution Company of the Year.
Ojelabi said the Federal Government had looked at all the distribution companies in Nigeria and discovered a gap of about six million that needed to be met with a total cost of about N900 billion. He said the government was currently working out modalities for making the funds available to DisCos to enable them to meter their customers.
