FG may have not released half of the N50b appropriated for transmission in 2016 —ANED
Facts are beginning to come up on why the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) may have been running from pillar to post looking for funding in the last one year for its activities.
The Director, Advocacy and Research at Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED), Mr. Sunday Oduntan, explained in a statement issued in Abuja that the main constraints hampering the activities of TCN had been funding and expressed doubt if the N50bn appropriated for the TCN in the 2016 budget had been released by half.
He said “This funding level is even more pitiful when, especially, measured against the TCN’s estimate of $7.5bn for its five-year expansion plan that is expected to take us to 10,000 megawatts from our current 4,500MW”.
He also argued that “To date, the government has not met the privatisation transaction foundational requirements of providing N100bn in subsidies, payment of the MDAs’ electricity obligations, ensuring that the Discos have debt free financial books and implementing a cost-reflective tariff”.
Oduntan queried that “Should the Discos suffer financial losses due to the limitations associated with the TCN’s wheeling constraints?
“The TCN has remained underfunded over several decades. Such limited or underfunding has resulted in poor transmission infrastructure and planning, with the consequences of grid instability and limited wheeling capacity, adversely impacting the distribution and generation of electricity.”
Power experts had been calling on the government to inject enough funding to TCN so that it can be able to move generated power along its grip to areas of need across the federation.
