‘Investors in power sector to get government enabling environment’

Godknows Igali, permanent secretary, Federal Ministry of Power, on Monday said the Federal Government was working hard to improve the enabling environment for investors to invest in the power sector.

Igali said this in Abuja at the opening of a two-day conference on “Powering Africa: Nigeria.’’

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the conference was organised by the World Bank and the Ministry of Power with the theme: “Maintaining Momentum in Nigeria Power Sector.’’

“The president has restated that this government will do everything to make the enabling environment in the power sector better for our investors. Investors can have a confidence that their investments in the power sector are not only secured.

“But, we will ensure that there is sanctity of a stable and regulatory environment for you to do your investment. You can be sure that government on its part will continue to refine anything that needs to be refined for you to do your business.

“Potentially, the Nigerian power market is the biggest infrastructure in Africa and there is no other market that could be bigger than it,” he said.

Igali said that gas was a major hindrance to power supply in the past, saying that the government had started addressing it and this had started affecting the power supply positively.

In his remarks, Bart Nnaji, a former minister of power, said transmission was one of the major constraints of power supply in the country, saying this was because of the frequent vandalism and poor voltage profile.

He, however, said segmenting the grid and fast tracking the training of management of sub-stations and power lines could solve the problem of transmission.

“Also, provision of a complete state of the art Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) and associated IT infrastructure should be considered,’’ he said.

Nnaji also advised the federal and state governments to devise a policy framework to ensure consistency for easy and cost effective acquisition of right of way.

Sam Amadi, chairman, Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), said that collaborations were on to regulate gas supply price for operators.

He said one of the major problems of the commission was the issue of estimated billing suffered by Nigerians, and urged investors to intervene in metering, saying that it was very critical to reduce losses and give confidence to the consumers.

The NERC chairman said this was because many Nigerians were still grappling with the problem of estimated billings.

“One of the big problems we are facing is estimated billings and by the regulatory framework, before any customer is connected, there must be a meter.

“But, because of the legacy of the past where there were no investments in generation or distribution, there are about 40 or 50 percent of customers who do not have functional meters. That is a problem because in this market,’’ he said.