Privatization Of Our Power Sector Has Failed – Ahmed Lawan

Senate President, Ahmad Lawan has said that there is a pressing need to revisit the privatization of the power sector.

Speaking recently in Abuja when members of the Executive Committee of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria ((MAN) paid him a courtesy visit, Lawan said privatization of the sector has obviously failed to work.

According to him, it has not been successful since the reason why privatization was preached in the first place was because of the efficiency that should be expected, but that has failed to happen thus far.

He added that there is no way privatization can be prove effective without adequate and steady power supply.

His words, “I think the privatisation has not worked. It has failed because the essence of privatisation is to create efficiency.”

“It appears most of the companies, the DISCOs (Distribution Companies), have no sufficient capital and probably the same thing with the GENCOs (Generation Companies).”

“I think the time has come for the government to take a very drastic but necessary decision. If we have privatised the DISCOs and the GENCOs, I think, the private sector, those who have taken them over, should be able to make them work better than they were before.

“If they cannot, I think we need to revisit this privatisation because we cannot go on like that. We should look at the larger interest of Nigerians, not of those companies that have taken over the power sector – the DISCOs and the GENCOs.

“We are going to support the executive arm of government… We will suggest that going forward we have to revisit the privatisation because apparently the companies are not able to provide the power that we thought they could by now.”

“There is no way we can make any serious progress without adequate and steady power supply”.