$174m loan: Senate faults plan to hand over TCN to AfDB

Senate has faulted the plan by the Federal Government to hand over the management of Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) to African Development Bank (AfDB) as collateral for $174 million loan from the multilateral development finance institution.

A reliable source in the Senate revealed that the Federal Government had concluded plan to secure AfDB loan of $174 million.

Part of the collateral for the loan, the source said, is to hand over the management of TCN to AfDB as well as the deployment of three AfDB staff to manage TCN for six months in the first instance.

According to the source, “the AfDB will terminate and remove the entire management of TCN even when they are just mid-way into their tenure.”

He noted that the Senate is asking “under what arrangement the Federal Government will cede the entire critical national asset to AfDB even when Nigerians are grappling with energy crisis.”

According to the source, the Senate is also interested to know whether the government can “push aside a management that was legitimately instituted just because the country wants a loan.”

He asked whether “giving of loan entitled AfDB to grab the management of TCN especially when it is a loan Nigeria will repay.” The source said that the Senate would also want to know whether Nigeria is not entitled to AfDB loan.

He noted that the “implication is that there is lack of faith between Nigeria and AfDB which the country is a major donor.”

He added, “The Federal Government has already made huge allocation in the 2017 budget estimate. Is it now wise to hand over such funds to TCN to be managed by AfDB appointees?”

He said the Senate reliably gathered that the people AfDB planned to second to TCN were economists and not technical staff.

The source said that information available to the Senate showed that one of the persons the AfDB planned to second to manage TCN was a former junior staff in TCN who studied Accounting.

He asked whether an accountant can be in charge of electrical grip and expected to perform better.

“Curiously the Federal Government is yet to determine whether to privatise TCN. The Senate is insisting that you cannot hand over TCN to AfDB without privatising it.

“The Senate is therefore insisting that the status quo must be maintained failing which the Senate as an institution will not have anything to do with handing over a national asset when it has not been privatized.

“We are therefore watching and waiting hoping that commonsense will prevail,” the source added.