Following a national Economic Council meeting yesterday, The Nigerian government has announced that it will consider an overhaul of the private power sector.
The country’s power sector was privatized in 2013, but millions of Nigerians remain without access to power, with grids plagued by frequent blackouts, leaving businesses and consumers reliant on power generators.
Plans to build privately financed power stations have been railroaded in recent years by concerns of persistent shortfalls in payments for electricity across the sector.
Currently, the government-owned Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading company (NBET) buys power from generators and passes it on to distributors who then receive payment from customers and reimburse NBET.
According to Nasir El-Rufai, Chairman of a committee set up by the NEC to harmonise the Power Sector Reform, the government looks to end the existing challenges and the committee’s request to begin the process of finding solutions is now approved.
