The Electric Power Sector Reform Act
that was passed in 2005, which serves as Nigeria’s electricity reform
law, is one of the best in the world and is almost perfect, the Minister
of Power, Works, and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, has said.....
He stated this at the 2017 Power Africa
Nigeria Conference in Abuja on Thursday, adding that nothing was wrong
with the law in its entirety, as concerns about the Act might be on its
implementation by the government.
Fashola explained that with the law, the
business of power generation, transmission and distribution had been
democratised and was now within the domains of both the federal and
state governments to consider investing in.
“The EPSR Act is a great piece of
legislation that is comparable to any other in the world. That law was
put together by members of the National Assembly whom Nigerians elected
as their representatives, and who committed to giving Nigeria a law to
enable us develop our power sector,” he stated.
The minister noted that in implementing
reforms, which the law enunciated, like the privatisation of defunct
Power Holding Company of Nigeria, there might have been errors that had
left some gaps.
He, however, stated that the government
would close the gaps and correct the errors by using the recently
approved Power Sector Recovery Programme.
“We now have the PSRP to fill the gaps
in the privatisation that were perhaps omitted, and also enable us pass
through what I believe is a transitional phase from government monopoly
to private sector operated power sector,” Fashola said.
The minister told participants at the
event that state governments were now free to invest in power
generation, transmission and distribution.
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