By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Three weeks after announcing plans to privatise the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) has turned around to say it will concession it, as there is no plan for its privatisation.
But the BPE has not changed its proposal to sell off power generation companies (Gencos) 100 per cent, which it announced in May and asked investors to declare their interest in buying Gencos from the National Integrated Power Project (NIPP).
BPE Director-General Alex Okoh announced the plan in a statement without disclosing how much would be raised from the sale.
Okoh had also disclosed plans to unbundle the TCN in an interview with Bloomberg on May 27.
“The Bureau of Public Enterprises is looking at various strategies to reform the Transmission Company of Nigeria, Director-General Alex Okoh said in an interview.
“The agency will share its proposal ‘very shortly’ with the National Council on Privatisation that the state-owned corporation be unbundled and then privatised,” Bloomberg reported.
It would have been the biggest privatisation in the sector since the 2013 power reforms.
However, BPE Energy Department Director Yunana Malo clarified in Abuja on Monday that the government would not privatise, and will only ‘concession’, TCN for greater efficiency, as reported by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
He said transmission is the weak link in the power reform, as privatised generation has attracted a lot of investment, making it more efficient.
He explained that power generation capacity has improved, 60 per cent of the distribution segment has been partially privatised and is beginning to pick up through reforms.
“The seemingly weak link is the transmission component, it is still 100 per cent owned by the federal government.
“The idea is to think outside the box and bring in solutions that will make the transmission component service the value chain, and make it more efficient.
“Government is not thinking of privatising, it is thinking of ways and means that the private capital can be brought into the transmission component without giving out the ownership of Transmission Company,” Malo said.
He added that the BPE would concession transmission “so that we can have somebody building the high tension lines, covering areas that have not been reached or to maintain the existing ones to get maximum value, to move from the radial system we have today into a mesh.
“So the idea is not to privatise but to reform and make it efficient, bringing in private sector operational modalities within the transmission company.”
Malo confirmed that the government’s 40 per cent stake in Distribution Companies (Discos) is intact and protected by the BPE.
