AN OVERVIEWREPORT ON THE POWER SECTOR REFORM AGENDA IN NIGERIA FROM 1999 TILL DATE.BADRUBOLUWATIFE A.
CovenantUniversity, Ogun state, Ota, Nigeria.COLLEGEOF ENGINEERING.Departmentof Electrical and Information Engineering.ABSTRACT:Electricitystability is one of the qualities of a developed country. Nigeria hinders herdevelopment after 19 (1999 – 2018) years of practicing democracy,(thegovernment of people by the people),other West-African countries such as Ghanaand The Republic of Benin; enjoy 24 hours of power supply which leaves me towonder why a great country like Nigeria should have a problem of this sort. This study is assessing the power reform agendas fromObasanjo’s Administration – 1999 until date, the success of these agendas, theproblems facing it and their probable solutions, the multiple effects on oursociety and economy.
BACKGROUND TOTHE STUDY. The history of Nigeria’s power sector goes as far as back as in the year 1896, but the very first electric power supplycompany, which was known as the Nigerian Electricity Supply Company, was foundedin the year 1929. The then colonial power created a body to govern theaffairs of the power sector called the Electricity Corporation of Nigeria (ECN)in the year 1950 the then used generators had a capacity of only about 60 Kilowatts.The Electricity Corporation of Nigeria (ECN) was then merged with the NigerianDam Authority (NDA) to create a new organization called The NationalElectric Power Authority (NEPA) on the 6th of January,1973 initiallythe merging began in April 1972. In 1999, power generation was about 1,700Megawatts at the initial time of the year 2000, power supply decreased speedilyto about 1,500 Megawatts which was a major set-back for the growing power sector, according toWikipedia the total generating capacity of the six major powerstations in Nigeria is about 3,450 MEGAWATTS.
POWER SECTORREFORM AGENDA IN PRESIDENT OLUSEGUN OBASANJO’S TENURE (BETWEEN THE YEARS OF 1999TO 2007)Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, former president of the republic of Nigeria,during his term as the then democratically elected president, started reformagenda, first creating the Electric Power Sector Implementation Committee whichthen played a major key, by ensuring the passage of the Electric Power SectorReform Act into law in the year 2005, with the main aim of ensuring efficiencyin the power sector, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) wascreated, and other objectives as listed below: 1.Promote competition to stimulate more rapid provision ofof electric power throughout the country; efficiency of the power sector was akey player to the initiating of the Reform Act of 2005. 2.
Create a legal and regulatory environment called TheNigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) for the sector thatestablishes a level playing field, encourage private investment and expertise,and meet social goals3. Unbundled theNational Electric Power Authority (NEPA) successfully into eighteen othersuccessor companies; 4.Privatize the successors to NEPA and encourage them toundertake an ambitious investment program.
This ambitious privatization,turn out to be successful having resulted into 18 successor companies (sixgeneration companies, eleven distribution companies and one transmissioncompany). The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) :was established by law during the tenure of Chief Olusegun Obasanjoas president, It was established to serve as the regulator of the electricitysector. The Electricity Power Sector Reform Act of 2005 set it up in March inthe year 2005. The major responsibilities of the Nigerian ElectricityRegulatory Commission are:1.Regulates the generation, transmission, distribution andmarketing of electricity in Nigeria and with Nigeria;2.Licenses and inspects private and corporate electricpower projects in the country which are 10 MEGAWATTS and above (where 1-10MEGAWATTS are issued Captive Licenses).3.Ensures the Efficiency of generation plants, high voltagetransmission system and the distribution system to avoid failure.
4.Ensures occupational health and safety of personsinvolved with electricity in the whole power sector.5.Monitors and investigates energy markets.6.Uses civil penalties and other means against energyorganizations and individuals who violate NERC rules in the energy markets.7.Administers accounting and financial reporting regulationsand conduct of regulated electric power companies.
THE POWER REFORMAGENDA UNDER PRESIDENT UMARU YAR’ADUA (BETWEEN THE YEARS OF 2007 TO 2010)Umaru Musa Yar’adua was the 13th president of the republicof Nigeria, during his tenure he had a seven point agenda to the achievement ofa vision 20:2020, in which the Electric power sector wasn’t excluded, the thenPresident had the following agendas for the power sector of Nigeria:1.Maintaining a minimum generation and transmission capacityof 20,000 MEGAWATTS by 2020. 2.
Minimizing power outages by at least 75% of averageoutages in the country. 3.Minimize transmission and distribution technical lossesaround the country. 4.Increase revenue allocation in PHCN by at least 50%.
5.To Improve on and maximize Customer Service delivery inthe Distribution and Marketing section of PHCN. 6.Improve on Health, Safety and Environmental measures ingeneration, transmission and distribution of electricity around the country. THE POWER REFORMAGENDA UNDER PRESIDENT GOODLUCK EBELE JONATHAN (2010-2015).Goodluck Ebele Jonathan was the 14th president of theRepublic of Nigeria, under his administration as the president, the NigerianBulk Electricity Trading (NBET) was founded in the year 2010, and theprivatization of 10 out of 11 distribution companies was completed in November2013, and then the last distribution company was privatized in November 2014. STATEMENT OFPROBLEM.
Nigeria a country with great potentials, often referred to as thegiant of Africa, with the leading African population and economy but ourcountry still faces challenges with providing uninterrupted power supply andproblems with supplying even half of the estimated National consumption ofabout 10,000 MEGAWATTS – 15,000 MEGAWATTS according to UBI(2012). The challengescausing our systems epileptic power supply cannot be farfetched from theproblems affecting all other areas in our country, Nigeria.1.FundingThe problem of funding can be said to be self inflicted, because,Nigeria has lost a lot of investors due to our epileptic growth as a country,the funds needed for the enlarging of our power sector, Nigeria has proven totry to source for funds by privatizing, which has been fruitless due tomismanagement of funds. 2.CorruptionThe corruption in the power sector is as prominent as that in the oiland gas sector, according to SERAP; the Socio-Economic Rights andAccountability Project in a report titled “FromDarkness to Darkness: How Nigerians are Paying the Price for Corruption in theElectricity Sector” presented by Associate Professor Yemi Oke; about 11trillion naira has been squandered from Obasanjo’s, Yar’uda’s and Jonathan’stenure on the electric power sector, it is also estimated that it might reach20 trillion in the next few years and this doesn’t make any single sense regardinghow minute this power sector has accomplished in just 19 years. 3.
Inadequate skilled manpowerThe epileptic growth of Nigeria’s power sector isalso due to to the unavailability of people who have the knowledge of the powersector, Thereis need for great emphasis on the need for transmission lines and stations andconstruction of additional transmission lines in order to ease transmission ofenergy. Illiteracy has it’s scars on the nation.EFFECT ON OURECONOMY AND SOCIETY SOLUTIONS TO THIS EPILEPTIC CONDITION IN OUR POWERSECTOR.1.INVESTMENT Nigeria as a developing country is great with potentials, there areinvestment opportunities in Nigeria’s power sector, investment from foreign andlocal investment with out any sort of mismanagement by the government, wouldhelp in the privatization of the power sector and also provide the funds forthe enlarging of the epileptic power sector Nigeria has gained a famous name,but first the government has to prove to be able to prove to be able to manageher funds.
2.USE OF ALTERNATIVE ENERGY SOURCES. Nigeria is well blessed with renewable sources of energy, the hydrosystem in Nigeria (Kanji dam) has proven not to be enough for the demands of thepeople of Nigeria, Nigeria’s geographical location on the earth gives us anedge over most other countries, Nigeria is located at the equator, meaning weare abundant with the direct rays of the Sun, which is the source of solarenergy. If Nigeria can go into finding ways of accessing this source, it couldbe the beginning of a turn around for this country, and also exploration andenlarging of the thermal stations in Nigeria.3.
EDUCATIONEducation would play a vital role, it seems to me that illiteracy hascreated a sense of ignorance, the fight against the corruption in, the need forskilled man power, which can only be gotten through education. The youthsshould also be properly educated on the effect of destroying public utilitiessuch as electric poles, transformers,power generators and so on, instead of worsening our case it can easily be madebetter.
