FEC okays N30b to settle MDAs light bill

THE Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved the payment of N39.9billion debt owed to Distribution Companies (Discos) from power consumed by Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) out of N67.4billion claims.

This was one of the outcomes of the council meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday at the presidential villa, Abuja.

Briefing State House correspondents on the meeting, Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, said the approval followed a memo he presented for the council’s consideration on verified debts on power supplied to the MDAs.

According to him, since the beginning of the present administration, claims of debts by the government to Discos have been a matter of concern especially in the light of liquidity issues.

He said the government had committed that those figures would be verified and pay the verified sums.

He added: “We Have concluded the verification and we now ask Council to approve the verified sum of N25.994billion owed by MDAs of the federal government to be paid to the Discos out of the claims of N67.41billion.

“So, there is a differential of about N41billion. That differential arises first because some of the claims do not belong to the federal government.

“Some are owned by states and local governments. Also, some belong to public international organizations and were classified as government debts.

“So, there is more verifications going on and undertaking at states and local governments which we have discovered at the National Council on Power about a week ago.

“And this is important so that government can demonstrate its support for the private sector by paying its own debts so that the sector can do what they do well.”

Fashola said the government has also approved that the amount that has been quantified be set off against the amount owed by the Discos to Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trader (NBET), a 100% federal government owned subsidiary company.

He explained: “They also owe the government for their unremitted collections for the energy they have taken and have not remitted.

“They are owing about N500billion to the government.”

The minister maintained that the payment of the debt was only a part of power sector recovery programme which includes “the collective set of policies, programmes and actions to fill the gaps and omissions in the privatisation processes instead of cancelling it.”

He assured that the sector could be re-engineered back to work, saying: “The power sector recovery programme includes payment of debt, proper governance, proper regulation. This is one of the many components.”

Also, briefing, Minister of Agriculture, Audu Ogbe, revealed that the first consignment of yams recently exported to the United States under the government’s programme to encourage exports was found to be of poor quality.

He said the government has now launched an investigation into the affair to determine what happened.

Ogbeh said: “We were mandated to brief you about development in the Agric sector. One of the developments about the consignment of yams which was exported from here to the United States and which according to the reports we have today was found to be of poor quality.

“The ministry will investigate because the Ministry is not an exporter the exporters are private people.

“We will be investigating both the company that exported it and ask our quarantine department to check and find out why such a consignment left here.”

On the efforts to reduce the cost of locally produced rice, Ogbe said rice growers and millers have agreed to government’s plans to lower the cost substantially which should soon manifest.

The minister stated: “We are very concerned about the price of rice which is the most consumed commodity in Nigeria.

“The two have agreed to the plans we have been pursuing to arrive at a certain price which makes the price of paddy stabilize at a point where the milers can take the rice, mill it and put it on the market at competitive prices almost as low in price as the foreign rice including the smuggled ones is going for.

“That means that in the next one month, the price of rice will become reasonable and the cost of rice would have reduced substantially.”