Power: FG’s N701bn intervention partial ―DisCos

Following the recent N701billion intervention fund given by the Federal Government (FG) to pay Generation Companies (GenCos), the 11 electricity distribution companies (Discos) in the country has said that the intervention was partial.

The federal government had recently approved N701 billion for the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET) to pay generation companies (GenCos) for services rendered.

In an interactive session with journalists in Abuja yesterday, the DisCos, who spoke through the Association of Nigerian Electricity Distribution Companies ANED’s Director, Research and Advocacy, Mr Sunday Oduntan, said although the intervention was commendable, only the upstream of the value chain is considered.

His words: “First of all let me start by commending the Federal Government for coming on board to help part of the value chain, the upstream with N701billion intervention fund. But we say that intervention is too little too partial.

“You cannot take care of the upstream while neglecting the downstream. We commend them particularly the Minister of power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola. He is somebody I know who has passion for the industry, but Fashola cannot do it alone.”

To this end, they urged the FG to urgently support the entire value chain so as to make the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry NESI commercially viable.

They also called for a holistic resolution and details of how the intervention will work saying:”The N701billion intervention is a good start but without a holistic resolution and details of how the interventions will work we will not make progress, that is our own reaction to that intervention.

“For me as a disco in the downstream of the sector, if I’m buying a product for N68 we have cried and cried over this, I am only allowed to sell it for N31.50k, there is no way it can be commercially viable so we expect it to come down now just at the point of GenCos.”