NAN-HE-23
Power
By Kingsley Okoye
Abuja, Oct 13,2016(NAN) The Management of Geometric Power Ltd. says the Federal Government needs to intensify its efforts to support private-sector investments in the power sector by consolidating on the gains from the Sector Reform Act of 2005.
The Managing Director of the Company, Mrs Agatha Nnaji, made the statement in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on the sidelines of the Powering Africa Nigerian Conference in Abuja on Thursday.
Nnaji said Federal Government had put in a lot of efforts to set the power sector on a path of self-sustainability.
She, however, said there were still a number of impediments to the achievement of the nation’s power reliability goal.
According to her, apart from the general concerns about the Nigerian economic environment, there are specific issues which the government needs to address.
Nnaji said government needed to work on the gains made from the sector reform roadmap to continue to develop enabling policies and enforcement of the policies and laws governing the sector.
According to her, critical areas where more work is needed include cost reflective tariff to ensure currency adjustments and other market shifts.
She said government agencies must be sensitive to private sector time and efficient management of costs in project development.
Other areas that require government attention includes the development of human capital by relevant government agencies, attraction of knowledgeable, experienced, well-exposed personnel that understand global commercial and legal issues inherent in the power sector.
Other measures, according to her, is the mustering of strong political will to address the sectorial challenges, stable and transparent policies and respect for contracts terms and agreements.
On Geometric Power Company, Nnaji said that the building of Aba IPP facilities would result in the improvement of quantity and quality of power supply with steady electricity.
She said that the excess power from the facilities would be sold to the national grid
She said that the project had been virtually completed and should have been delivering electricity about three years ago.
She said there were issues it encountered which the current government was working on to ensure confidence of investors and sanctity of contracts.
She said with the support of the present government, the Aba IPP project would go into commercial operations within six months, barring any unforeseen circumstances.(NAN)
KC/IA
Edited by Idris Abdulrahman