Speaker of the House of Representatives Yakubu
Dogara has called for a review of the power sector
privatization.
Dogara, who spoke during a public hearing by the
committees on power and privatization and
commercialization yesterday in Abuja, said millions
of Nigerians are being exploited through estimated
bills by the staff of different electricity companies.
Represented by the Minority Whip, Rep Yakubu
Barde, the speaker also expressed dismay that the
duration of uninterrupted power supply in the
country is now between six and eight hours daily,
adding that the process of metering customers in
the country was dismal.

Dogara also noted that while the country’s power
generation capacity has not improved, tariffs were
increased in February this year.
“The whole essence of the Federal Government
embarking on the privatization of the defunct Power
Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) and the electric
power sector reform program was to bring about
efficiency to electricity supply. Unfortunately, since
the unbundling of PHCN and transfer of the
businesses to the privately-operated successor
companies on November 1, 2013, we have not had a
good report from the electricity market.
“The statistics show an abysmal situation of things
and if this trend continues, there may be need for a
fundamental re-thinking of the privatization process
in Nigeria.

“In spite of all these, we have reports that the
cumulative market shortfall has risen to over
N700bn as of date. This trend escalates at the rate of
about N25.6bn monthly from NBET’s August 2016
Electricity Market Payment Report,” he said.