Abuja | Wednesday
NIGERIA will sell off its under-performing electricity company Nepa next year, the head of the government-appointed privatisation agency said on Tuesday.
“The president has directed that Nepa must be sold next year and that is what we will do,” the director-general of Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Nasiru el-Rufai told reporters here.
He said the company will be sold in phases.
“We will sell part of it next year because Nepa will be broken into about 30 firms. So selling 30 companies at once may be difficult, but we will try our best,” he said.
President Olusegun Obasanjo has repeatedly said that the National Electric Power Authority (Nepa) will be sold to promote efficiency in the power sector.
The company’s poor performance means power cuts lasting hours occur throughout Nigeria daily, with many areas having to make do without electricity for weeks.
Critics derisively call Nepa “Never Expect Power Always.”
Obasanjo has ordered Nepa to strengthen its system and double power output to around 4 000 megawatts by the end of this year.
The government has also sent a bill to parliament to break up the company into power generation, transmission and distribution branches.
Last week, the government approved more than $237-million worth of new power transmission projects, aimed at improving power supplies across the country.
The projects will enhance the existing 330 KW and 132 KW networks of the national grid, an official document said.
The German engineering firm Siemens was among the contractors approved for the projects.
Chinese firm North China Power Corporation recently expressed interest in the Mambilla power project in the northern Nigeria. – AFP