RECENTLY, the Federal Government celebrated new highs in domestic power generation. According to an elated Minister of Power, Prof. Barth Nnaji, On Friday, September 17, Nigeria attained the highest quantum of power ever. We achieved 3,982.7MW. This figure does not include the 260MW maintained as spinning reserve, which is used for system stability. The Minister reported that all the 3,982.7MW now being produced goes into the national grid without difficulty. According to him, the attained generation is now 4,242.7MW.As far as the horrid story of electricity in Nigeria goes, this is an improvement. For the better part of the last 12 years, power supply fluctuated between 2,000MW and 3,000MW. While campaigning for the April elections, President Goodluck Jonathan had promised that Nigerians would enjoy uninterrupted power supply by 2012. By Gods grace by December 2012, Nigeria will not only celebrate one day of uninterrupted electricity supply, but we would celebrate one week, one month and so on of uninterrupted electricity supply.But 4,000MW is still a far cry from meeting the projected electricity demand because of the significant deficiency in the implementation of the governments power reform agenda. The reform aimed at exiting the Federal Government from the total ownership, management and control of operating companies and limiting its involvement in the sector to policy-making and regulation and enabling the Federal Government to devote more resources on and develop capacities in delivering social services like healthcare and education. Other key objectives are to reduce the opportunity for corruption and inefficiency in the planning, design and award of big infrastructure contracts and to achieve a turnaround of Nigerias electric power sector and driving massive investment into the electricity industry similar to that of the telecommunications sector (where coverage has grown from under 500,000 customers to almost 70 million) driven by private sector investment and management discipline. The process of privatising the power sector was scheduled to be completed in 2011.Today, what is left of the strategy is a bundle of confusion. The Roadmap, under the section, The Short Term Targets (for the period August 2010-2011), states in part, The government has set itself the twin objectives of rehabilitating 1,000MW of generating capacity at existing Power Holding Company of Nigeria power stations and an additional 1,266MW of generating capacity from new National Integrated Power Project stations. With 4,000MW as total output, currently, as stated by the minister at the occasion, it means only 400MW has been added to the advertised 3,600MW output level of August, 2010.Again, the Roadmap envisaged the successful privatisation of distribution companies between 2011 and mid-2012, but the signals to date have been of continued government interest in retaining the companies. Nnaji, for instance, recently directed the chief executive officers of the PHCNs 18 successor companies to increase staff salaries by 50 per cent, and to regularise the employment of some 10,000 casual workers. He is also working on revenue projections requiring the PHCN to be able to generate N17bn monthly to defray operational costs and pay staff salaries. The result has been an increase in electricity tariffs without corresponding service delivery. Placating the PHCN workers with salary increase to the detriment of consumers is a mark of hypocrisy and insensitivity. It is claimed that over 80 per cent of the power ministrys operational costs go into the payment of salaries and the welfare for the PHCN staff.Nigerias power-supply system is still abysmal. Its electricity, also unreliable and one of the worlds most expensive, is a major constraint to economic growth. The African Development Bank Group also says only about 45 per cent of the Nigerian population have access to electricity, with about 30 per cent of their demand for power being met. It adds that some 90 per cent of industrial customers and a significant number of residential and other non-residential customers provide their own power at a huge cost to themselves and to the Nigerian economy. But the International Monetary Fund warns that while the infrastructure deficit in Nigeria is substantial, an increase in public investment could be a source of considerable waste if adequate quality control mechanisms are not put in place.The Federal Government must remain focused on the power reform roadmap. The appointment of a board for the Nigeria Bulk Electricity Trading Plc, announced recently, should prepare the distribution companies for divestment in accordance with the revised schedule published recently by the Bureau of Public Enterprises. Prospective investors, especially those seeking to undertake projects in power generation, need the effective take-off of the NBET to be assured of the seriousness of government and the safety of planned investments.The PHCN, operating with an interim licence since the expiry of its first 18-month licence (obtained in January 2006), is an everyday reminder of business left undone by implementation agencies of the privatisation programme, notably, BPE and National Council on Privatisation. It should be dispensed with as soon as possible, along with its baggagecrazy billing and unreliable services (by largely unproductive employees). Any continued review of staff working conditions and increases in electricity tariffs cannot be viewed as anything but a policy somersault.Only a speedy implementation of the power sector reform will boost growth in non-oil sectors. ADB warns that delay in the implementation of power sector reforms and the completion of critical public investment will be economically and socially costly. The National Assembly needs to take more than passing interest in the reforms of the power sector, given the strategic nature of the sector to the nations developmental aspirations.
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