Nigerians groan over blackout, despite N7trn investment

By allcitynews.ng

As about 86 million people out of over 200 million people are currently groaning in darkness, despite injection of over N7 trillion by Government, they tasked Federal Government to focus more on service delivery than tariff increment.

Labour and other stakeholders have expressed their pains over the inability for the sector to bring relief to customers after 10 years.

Worried that not tangle improvement has taken place since the 10 years that most Nigerians are without electricity while those with electricity are not given mandatory metres, they charged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to take drastic step for efficient electricity supply.

On his part, the leadership of
organised Labour again expressed sadness at the way Nigerians are being forced to pay for service not rendered.

Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) President, Comrade Joe Ajaero lamented that the investors that took over the energy sector are only robbing Nigerians of their hard earned money by throwing them into darkness.

Lamenting that the privatisation has failed to yield positive results, the NLC helmsman said the pledged turnaround growth by those investors have only succeeded in making Nigerians to pay for darkness by throwing over 86 million people out of over 200 million population into darkness.

According to Ajaero, since the handover of the assets to private owners, corruption and inefficiency had remained in the sector, noting that no singular improvements has taken place in the sector in spite of the huge sums government has sunk into the industry, adding “owners of the power Generation Companies (GenCosl), and the power Distribution Companies (DisCos) only succeeded in making Nigerians to believe in lies as they lacked the technicalities to improve power generation and distribution across the country.

“The power sector has remain stagnant as no significant investment was made by those who bought the GENCOs and DISCOs through proxies. What we are reaping today are the unfortunate outcomes of the errors of yesterday and the investors are almost on daily basis smiling to banks with people’s money at the detriment of delivering of stable electricity.”

The failure of the investors in privatised power sector to meet the demands of electricity users nationwide is causing pain and anger among power consumers, as they expressed disgust over the privatisation exercise.

Many industries, small businesses, companies, among others, have collapsed as a result of the poor supply of electricity in Nigeria. This is despite the privatisation of the successor power generation and distribution companies in November 11, 2013.

Nigeria’s power firms generate and supply between 3,500 megawatts and 5,500MW of electricity to over 200 million citizens across the country.  On December 28, 2023, for instance, power generation on the national grid was 4,690.07MW.

Few days ago, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led regime through the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission issued 13 new licences for the generation of off-grid and embedded power, independent electricity distribution, as well as for the trading of electricity.

He said the new licences were issued in the third quarter of 2023, as the cumulative quantum of electricity to be generated by the licensees was 40.9 megawatts

Under the section titled, ‘Licences and Permits Issued or Renewed,’ in the latest third quarter 2023 report of NERC, it was revealed that five new off-grid generation licences that would generate 8.81MW were issued during the review period, as well as one new licence for embedded generation of 5MW.

On other licences that were issued, the commission said, “One new licence for Independent Electricity Distribution Network, one new licence for trading, three off-grid generation licences, one embedded generation, and one IEDN licence.”

It explained that the commission issues licences for electricity generation, transmission, distribution, trading and system operations in the Nigeria Electricity Supply Industry.

“For activities that do not require licenses based on the provisions of sections 65-68 of the Electricity Act 2023, but still require authorisation from the commission, such as off-grid captive power generation and mini-grid development, the commission issues permits to the operators following a review of the relevant applications,” the NERC stated.

Nigeria generates between 3,500MW and 5,000MW of electricity for the over 200 million people across the country, a development that has been described as poor for Africa’s biggest economy.

Speaking with allcitynews.ng, the President, One Nigeria Empowerment Initiative Incorporated (ONEII) Comrade Onwumere Israel John said he wondered why President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (BAT) approved the new increment at the detriment of improved supply of electricity.

According to Onwumere Israel John, most Nigerians are not enjoying electricity supply and they are no longer able to afford the “I better Pass My Neighbour” generators because of withdrawal of fuel subsidy.”

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