BPE postpones bids for distribution firms
MINISTER of State for Power, Mr. Darius Dickson Ishaku, has assured that the Federal Government would not privatise the transmission sub-sector grid.
In a similar vein, new investors will now emerge for the 11 Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) Distributing Companies (Discos) on October 16, 2012 instead of the earlier date of October 10, when the BPE equally opens the bids for the transaction.
The minister, who disclosed this during a visit to Afam Power Station at the weekend, explained that power generation and distribution could be in private hands, but stressed that the nation needs to be in charge of its transmission process, which takes power to the final consumer.
He pointed out that if the transmission sector was privatised, it could hold the entire nation to ransom.
He added: "No country in the world privatises the transmission company of its power sector, the transmission is the evacuation. Without transmission you can generate power, but it will still not get to the final consumer so transmission becomes the most critical link between the generation and the distribution.
"It is so critical that the nation's security depends on it, if you privatise the sector, the owner of that company can hold the whole nation to ransom. That is why the government thought it wise to only bring in management consultants who are to train Nigerians for a brief period and leave Nigerians to run it", Ishaku added.
Dickson also assured workers of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) who are afraid of losing their jobs due to the privatisation of the power sector to be hopeful as the process would give them better opportunities.
The spokesman of the privatisation agency, Mr. Chukwuma Nwoko, explained that the extension of the date for the sale was to give bidders the required 15 working days to procure and submit their post-qualification security in accordance with the provisions of the Request for Proposals (RFP) for the sale of successor distribution companies.
Meanwhile, the BPE will tomorrow conduct the sale of the six Generating Companies (Gencos) of the succeeding companies of PHCN, which would pave way for private sector investment in power generation in Nigeria.
The National Council on Privatisation (NCP) had last August 24 approved the following bidders, which met the benchmark and directed that their financial proposals be opened tomorrow upon the submission of their post qualification security. They are Ughelli Power Plc, Sapele Power Plc, Geregu Power Plc, Kainji Power Plc, Shiroro Power Plc and Afam Power Plc. Source:guardiannewspaper
they should just do the right thing