Worried by the quantum of failures of past and present efforts of the government in raising the supply of power across the country, the Federal Government has approved the Power Sector Recovery Programme (PSRP).
The scheme is made up of strategic policy actions to be carried out to improve service delivery. Part of the plan will be the tracking of approved contracts for the construction of 13 roads and replacement of bridges across states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory worth N85bn.
These were part of the decisions taken by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting this week.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed; Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola; and Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Alhaji Mohammed Bello, who buttressed the reasons behind the new plan jointly said that the design of the new plan will give sustainable and instant results that will raise power adequacy.
Explaining more on the PSRP, Fashola said it comprised many policy actions, operational and financial interventions that needed to be carried out by the government to improve transparency, service delivery and performance of the electricity distribution firms, among others.
According to him, “Some of the highlights of the programme are how to simplify and reduce the cash deficits that have accumulated as a result of previous unilateral reduction of tariff by the last administration during the run-off to the elections; and how to make the Discos viable, accountable, responsive to customers, ensure stability of the grid and expansion of the grid, and transparency and communication within the sector.
“The programme also processes for Ministries, Departments and Agencies debts and how to improve sector governance and the quality of personnel on the board of the Discos.
“It addresses access to renewable energy, especially in rural areas, using mini-grids and standalone solutions and how we are going to carry out the solutions that have been developed for 37 federal universities and seven tertiary hospitals.”
He noted further that “It also focuses on how to solve the Niger Delta problem and also how to ensure there is a stable and predictable foreign exchange policy for the sector so that it is somewhat protected from sudden head winds of the volatility of the foreign exchange market so that the operators can plan and deliver.
“It also addresses the issue of vandalism at consumer and production levels of pipelines, among others. This will help bring confidence to the market and stimulate the appetite that currently exists globally for Nigeria’s power sector.
“We see a lot of people who want to invest, but some of them are tied to what other international financial institutions do and the institutions are also waiting to see us commit to these things,” Fashola said.
