Vice President Yemi Osinbajo says the inauguration of a board for the Nigeria Electricity Liability Management Company (NELMCO) will enhance ongoing efforts to resolve liabilities relating to tariff shortfalls for distribution companies, among other challenges plaguing Nigeria’s power sector.
Speaking at the weekend during the inauguration of the new board of NELMCO, he said the inauguration would provide a veritable mechanism for managing the very dynamic nature of the liquidity challenges of the power sector.
Osinbajo’s spokesman, Laolu Akande, in a statement, Sunday, said the company had been running without a duly constituted board since the first one was inaugurated in 2013 and dissolved shortly after.
The vice president said the new board was expected to make conscious and deliberate efforts to develop appropriate strategies to facilitate the successful conclusion of the outstanding pre-privatisation issues of the defunct PHCN, and ensure an effective implementation of NELMCO’s additional mandate to resolve the tariff shortfall problems of the electricity distribution companies (Discos).
He said the board was required to take appropriate steps to also ensure that the interests of the various segments of our society, particularly the ordinary citizens, were protected in the implementation of NELMCO’s mandate.
Board Chairperson and Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, assured of the board’s preparedness to ensure quick resolution of tariff shortfalls and related issues in the power sector in the most efficient manner.
Other members of the board included the Minister of Power, Abubakar Aliyu; Director-General, Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE), Alex Okoh; Director-General, Debt Management Office (DMO), Patience Oniha; Managing Director, NELMCO, Bayo Fagbemi; Muhammad Aliyu Jumma’a; Olufunso Olutola Olukoga; Dr. Chinedum Orisakwe; Mojoyinoluwa Dekalu-Thomas and Nurain Hassan Ibrahim.
In a related development, the BPE Director General, Alex Okoh, said the take-over of Kaduna, Kano, Ibadan and Port Harcourt Discos had been concluded successfully.
Okoh, in a presentation made at a virtual meeting of the National Council on Privatisation held earlier last week Tuesday, said the challenge in the takeover of the Benin Disco was being addressed.
He also made a presentation on the concession of the Zungeru Hydroelectric Power Plant, inviting NCP to note steps taken by the Bureau to fast track the process.
