ENERGY: Stiff Regulation Reason For Nigeria’s Dysfunctional Power Sector – Accord’s Professor Imumolen

Nigeria’s youngest presidential candidate and candidate of Accord for the 2023 election, Prof Christopher Imumolen has lamented over the current status of power in Nigeria and has proffered modules for the development of the sector.

Professor Imumolen during a recent media chat in Abuja stated that the power sector has to be opened to local and international players, stressing that its current status of a stiffly regulated realm is not apt.

He said more players are needed in the generation, transmission and distribution segments and that deregulation has to be ensured by the Nigerian Electricity Regulation Commission, NERC.

He described as unfortunate the fact that Nigeria has only been able to cover 50% of the nation in terms of power supply since independence.

Condemning Nigeria’s low generation capacity which stands at a dangling 6,000 megawatts despite the investment of hundreds of billions of naira by successive governments, he wondered where the about 5 billion dollars generated as tariff annually go to.

He, therefore, decried the spate of corruption in Nigeria’s power sector and others, pointing out that for Nigeria to escape the abysmally low supply to homes and industries which stands at an average of 2 hours per day presently, corruption must be tactically killed, and the business of energy generation, transmission and distribution must be entrusted in the hands of professionals who know the business and not to political acolytes or clients.

“For a remarkable impact and success to be recorded in the power sector, it must be handled with govt sincerity as a vital sector tightly hinged to national development.
“With adequate power supply, a palpable economic vibrancy will be injected into the economy and Large, Small and Medium Enterprises will boom”, he buttressed.

Concluding, he emphasised the urgent need for a more friendly investment atmosphere in the power sector, such so attractive to players who will make power stable in Nigeria, describing as disgraceful Nigeria’s inability to provide adequate power for its citizens since 1960, saying that Nigeria can only attain overall productivity, prosperity and development when her sectors thrive.