What to know about the electricity bill 2022 passed by the Senate + answers to and-then-what questions provided by Power Committee Chairman about the new bill
The Nigerian Senate on Wednesday, July 21, 2022, passed the electricity bill 2022 that would allow states to generate and distribute power as well as solve the sector’s challenges.
Platforms Africa reports that this came after the consideration of a report by the committee on power.
Gabriel Suswan, Chairman of the committee, who said the bill sought to provide an ideal legal and institutional framework to leverage the modest gains of the privatisation phase of the electric power sector in Nigeria, added that it would minimise aggregate value chain losses in the sector when signed into law.
READ ALSO EXCLUSIVE: MDs Fired as Nigeria Takes Over Benin, Kano, Kaduna DisCos
Investors Kick As Minister Explains Benin, Ibadan, 3 Other Discos Takeover
Why Grid Collapsed, TCN Gives Details After Fixing 6th System Failure
BREAKING: National Grid Suffers 6th Collapse In 7 Months
I Am Angry With State of Nigeria’s Power Sector – Buhari
Nigeria President Buhari Fires Power Minister, Mamman, over ‘inefficiency’
Emphasising the new regime would no longer require anyone or firm generating electricity below one megawatt to get a licence, he state that the new law would allow states or individuals with capacities to generate their power, “since electricity is on the concurrent list in the constitution, the bill has allowed state governments to license people who intend to operate mini-grids within the states,” he said.
Maintaining that the piece of legislation will reinvigorate the institutional framework for the reform of the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) initiated and implemented by the federal government, Suswam also disclosed that the provisions of the bill sought to promote policies and regulatory measures that would ensure the expansion of power transmission networks in Nigeria to address any imbalance in the existing transmission infrastructure.
He noted that the bill would stimulate policy and regulatory measures to scale up efficient power generation, transmission and distribution capabilities of the sector; as well as address technological limitations and outdated infrastructure responsible for value chain losses.
Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, had midway through consideration of the bill, reportedly sought to know the role and operational capacity of banks that had taken over Distribution Companies (DISCOs) indebted to them, to which Suswam was quoted to have explained that the takeover of entities (DISCOs) by banks was duly carried out in collaboration with the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) and Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE).
The former Governor of Benue State, stressed that there was a transitional process put in place during the take-over of the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) by the United Bank for Africa (UBA) to ensure efficiency in service delivery, adding that such a process usually involved invitation of new investors to scale up generation and distribution capacities and that the Federal Government had disbursed $100 million to Siemens to kickstart transmission in the distribution end of the power sector.
On his part, Ahmad Babba-Kaita, Senator representing Katsina north, was quoted as saying the faulty way in which DISCOs were created resulted in their inability to live up to expectations, advising the FG to ensure a transparent process in the selection of companies to takeover power generation and distribution across the country.
