The Federal Government has set up plans to source part of the $10 billion required to provide regular electricity across Nigeria from the private sector within the next five to 10 years.
The decision was one of the key outcomes of the meeting between the Director-General (DG) of the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), Dr Jobson Ewalefoh, and the Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu.
According to a statement by ICRC, the duo agreed that in view of the funding and technical requirements needed to development the power sector in Nigeria, it has become imperative to seek private sector input through Public Private Partnership (PPP) in co-financing and providing expertise that would ensure optimal performance of power infrastructure.
Speaking during the meeting, Ewalefoh, according to the statement, said, “Revamping the power sector requires planning, it involves investments and it takes time. So, we need to collaborate to solve the issues in this sector.
The investment required in power is very huge and government cannot fund it alone, so we have to leverage on the financing capacity of the private sector. That is why the ICRC was set up to regulate this leverage.
“The Commission is poised to regulating the processes of attracting investment to the power sector.”
He further said that in a bid to accelerate PPP investment as directed by President Bola Tinubu, the Commission had issued a 6-point policy directive which has streamlined the process of PPP service delivery.
The ICRC’s helmsman added that the Commission was now insisting on inserting conditions precedent to all PPP agreements such that any preferred bidder that defaults would have its agreement automatically nullified by reason of the default.
In his comments, the Adebayo said the government alone would not be able to meet the funding requirements of the electricity sector, if stable power supply was to be achieved in the next five to 10 years.
He stated: “For us to achieve 24 hours power supply across Nigeria in the next 5 to 10 years, there is a minimum funding requirement of about 10 billion dollars in the next 10 years.
“Can government do it alone? No, which is why we have to look for or marshal private sector fund while still retaining government interest and ownership. That is where ICRC comes in.
“We need to do this in collaboration with the private sector and the best way is through concession.”
