Barbara Bako, Abuja.
The Federal Government of Nigeria has revealed plans to source from the private sector, part of the 10 billion dollars required to provide regular electricity power supply across Nigeria within the next five to 10 years.
The Director General of the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), Dr Jobson Oseodion Ewalefoh had the discussion during a courtesy visit to the Minister of Power Chief Adebayo A. Adelabu, on Tuesday in Abuja.
Both parties agreed that it was now essential to look for private sector input through Public Private Partnership (PPP) in order to co-finance and provide expertise that will ensure optimal performance of power infrastructure, given the funding and technical requirements needed to advance Nigeria’s power sector.
Speaking during the meeting, the Director General of the PPP regulatory body said that in view of the importance of power to the economic development of Nigeria, optimizing performance of existing infrastructure as well as funding new ones was imperative.
He acknowledged the challenges in the sector was hydra-headed and went beyond funding alone, adding that with such inter-agency collaboration and partnership with the private sector, the limitations can be addressed.
In response to the Minister’s remark, the DG stated that the ICRC can use its regulatory procedures to encourage private sector investment in the power sector, which would provide regular electricity, draw in more foreign direct investment to other sectors, and eventually boost the economy.
“Revamping the power sector requires planning, it involves investments and it takes time. So, we need to collaborate to solve the issues in this sector.
“The investment required in power is very huge and government cannot fund it alone, so we have to leverage on the financing capacity of the private sector. That is why the ICRC was set up to regulate this leverage.
“The Commission is poised to regulating the processes of attracting investment to the power sector”.
He commended the Minister for his vast knowledge of the sector, pointing out that Mr. President’s choice of him was commendable.
Dr Ewalefoh said that in a bid to accelerate PPP investment as directed by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Commission had issued a 6-point policy direction which has ultimately streamlined the process of PPP service delivery.
READ ALSO:NNPC seals 10 years gas supply deal with Dangote Refinery
The DG stressed that whereas the processes have been streamlined to accelerate project delivery and encourage investors to adopt PPP, the Commission was not relenting or compromising on its stringent regulatory function so as to forestall contingent liabilities or unnecessary delays by companies that lack the requisite capacity.
In view of the above the ICRC’s helmsman added that the Commission was now insisting on inserting conditions precedent to all PPP agreements such that any preferred bidder that defaults will have their agreement automatically nullified by reason of their default.
In his response the minister commended the DG for the initiative to visit the ministry with the proposal of advancing investment in power sector through PPPs.
“For us to achieve 24 hours power supply across Nigeria in the next 5 to 10 years, there is a minimum funding requirement of about 10 billion dollars in the next 10 years.”
The governments he said, cannot afford that, when there are other critical sectors in need of funding.
“Can government do it alone? No! which is why we have to look for or marshal private sector fund while still retaining government interest and ownership. That is where ICRC comes in. We need to do this in collaboration with the private sector and the best way is through concession,” he added.
