FG spends N500b to settle power sector debts

Minister of Power, Chinedu Nebo on Monday disclosed that the Federal Government spent about N500 billion to settle debts and payoff to workers in the power sector to ensure that the privatisation of the sector took place last year.
This, he explained enabled the government to create the conducive environment for the private sector to invest in the power sector.

Professor Chinedu Nebo
Nebo who revealed this in Abuja during the 2014 Ministerial Press Briefing urged Nigerians to be patient as the challenges facing the sector are being tackled by the government.
He said government was determined to ensure that power gets to at least 75 percent of Nigerians by 2020, stressing that the foundation to achieving this is now in place.
Currently, only about 40 percent (or 68million) of Nigerians have access to electricity, he noted.
The Minister explained that while most power plants built under the National Integrated Power Project (NIPP) were almost completed, gas supply plants have delayed the take-off.
"We must admit that we made mistakes (under previous administrations) when the plants were designed because no thoughts were given to how gas would be brought to power the plants. And getting this mistake fixed is not a one day job. But we are there now and in weeks from now about three of the plants will come on-stream", he explained.
He warned electricity distribution companies that government would apply sanctions on those who continue to reject full load allocation.
Nebo stressed that such discos risk having their licences revoked and urged them to put their network in order and make more power available to consumers as generation improves.
He urged consumers to report cases of discos failure to attend to their complaints to NERC for possible re-dress and sanctions, stressing that service by the distribution companies must improve as more power becomes available.
He said: "We have received complaints of Discos rejecting power allocated to them. I saw a query written by NERC to one of the discos, I don't want to embarrass them by mentioning names, but we want to call them to order, any Disco that henceforth rejects power sent to it, we will find a way of dealing with them".
"And if it becomes a habitual behavior, then NERC will have to withdraw their license, because there is no point starving Nigerians of power when that power is available".