Business
Nigeria on track towards power utility privatization
Power pylons in Nigeria
(Reuters) – The Goodluck Jonathan administration in Nigeria accepted deposits by bidders for 15 state electricity assets on Monday, a milestone in a privatization process meant to end decades of power blackouts.
A signing ceremony at the presidential residence came a month after the bidders for 10 generation companies and five distribution companies paid deposits of 25 percent of the value of their bids.
Power companies will now negotiate terms to complete the transfer from state hands before paying the remaining funds and taking control of the plants and distribution firms, a process which is expected to take several months.
The country’s dysfunctional state electricity provider is being broken up into 15 firms handling generation or distribution in different parts of the country, with the aim of doing something no Nigerian administration has managed for decades: switching the lights on.
Despite being Africa’s top energy producer with the world’s seventh largest gas reserves, Nigeria produces and distributes only enough power for a few hours a day in the places that get it at all.
Economists say power outages cost Africa’s second biggest economy billions of dollars on imported diesel for generators and in lost output. They say current gross domestic product (GDP) growth of around 7 percent could be pushed into double figures if electricity supply could be sorted out.
Power output is currently about 4,000 megawatts for a country of 170 million people.
“Today’s event signals a major step forward in the implementation of our power sector road map,” President Jonathan said. “I congratulate the signing parties for reaching this significant target in our collective efforts to revitalize this sector, which is so important to our lives and development.”
Previous state sell-offs in Nigeria were blighted by political infighting and graft, which have caused years of delays. Regulators say this process has been transparent.
World bank officials also signed a credit risk guarantee on a loan from Deutsche Bank’s U.S. subsidiary to finance gas supplies to the 1,320 megawatt Egbin Power Plant, which is based outside Nigeria’s commercial-hub Lagos, and of which Korea’s KEPCO was offered a 70 percent stake this month.
Source: Reuters