Eko Electricity Distribution Company Plc says the planned N100bn government support for the power sector will go a long way in bettering the fortunes of DisCos, if released.
The power firm, which identified illiquidity as a major challenge facing operators, maintained that there is the need the support funding as banks have refused to lend to the sector due to its high debt profile.
The company made its intentions known when the Senate Committee on Power, Steel Development and Metallurgy visited its headquarters on oversight function in Lagos.
The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, EKEDC, Mr Adeoye Fadeyibi, said though the liquidity challenge was grave, the DisCo would continue to work towards delivering on its mandate, as discontinuing business was not an option.
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Power, Steel Development and Metallurgy, Mr. Enyinnaya Abaribe, also admitted that the country’s power sector was in a critical state, and needed serious intervention.
He said one of the objectives of the visit was to seek clarification on the issues bedeviling the nation’s power sector after the handover of the successor companies carved out of the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria to private investors in November 2013.
Abaribe said: “It is also going to help us in policy formulation because we are also going to interact with the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing; the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission and with other relevant agencies. Clarification of issues is very necessary for us to understand exactly what is going on.
“Now, why we are here is to be sure; if the privatisation is not working, why is it not working, who is at fault, what are the things that are supposed to be done, and those are the answers that we have come to seek, and, of course, Nigerians will get everything that will help them in making a good decision about whether it was a very good decision or not.”
Source: Guardian
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