Poor power supply: FG may come down heavily on DisCos
The Federal Government has vowed to come down heavily on electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos) following poor distribution in the country.
It warned that it cannot continue to subside the DisCos noting that despite doling out about N1.7 trillion to the companies in three years, they are only able to distribute 3,000mw out of about 10,000mw generated.
Minister of Power, Saleh Mamman, made this closure at the end of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Mamman who briefed alongside his colleagues from Ministries if Information and Culture, Water Resources, Industry Trade and Investment explained that while the DisCos were collecting the 3,000mw, they were only paying for 1,000mw.
The minister said the DisCos must show that they have capacity to distribute power to Nigerians or surrender for more competent companies to be engaged.
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Mamman said the government cannot continue to subside the companies without commensurate result.
The minister further disclosed that he presented the report before council to decide immediately.
Recalled the Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir el-Rufai, at the end of last month’s National Economic Council meeting disclosed that the federal government has spent N1.7 trillion on electricity in the last three years.
The governor who is the head of the ad-hoc committee on power had said: “What we have agreed on is that there are fundamental problems in the electronic supply industry, and that you cannot privatise an industry and then over three years since privatisation, you pump in N1.7 trillion of government into it. That is not privatisation.
“The federal government has supported the electricity sector with N1.7 trillion in the last three years and this is not sustainable. So, solutions must be found. Those solutions are not going to be nice. They may be painful, but the only way to solve the structural problems in the industry is to take some very difficult decisions.”
