Electricity generation companies on Sunday kicked against calls by the Senate for a reversal of the privatisation of the power sector.
The Gencos also announced that the indebtedness of the power sector to electricity producers had risen to about N1tn since November 2013 when the industry was privatised.
Opposing the position of the Senate, the Gencos argued that reversing the privatisation of the sector was not the solution to the current abysmal status of the power industry.
“It is very pertinent to state that the reversal of the privatisation exercise of 2013 is not the solution to resolving the current abysmal state of the sector,” the Association of Power Generation Companies, an umbrella body for the Gencos, said in a statement.
The Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, recently called for the reversal of the power sector privatisation, which according to him, had failed to deliver.
Although the Gencos empathised with Nigerians over the poor state of power supply, it noted that the current situation was adversely affecting its operations and jeopardising its investments.
The APGC said the situation had a very high potential to negatively impact the inflow of foreign direct investments to the country.
The Gencos explained that soon after the privatisation, it became obvious that key guidelines set by the Bureau of Public Enterprises and operators, as stipulated in the governing contract, had still not been activated.
“This has led to a huge outstanding debt of approximately N1tn owed to Gencos from the inception of privatisation till date,” they explained.
The power producers said they only received a payment of between 11 to 30 per cent of their invoiced amount on a monthly basis.
