The Senate has called on the Ministry of Power, Bureau of Public Enterprises, BPE and other agencies of government directly involved in the planned concession of the Zungeru Hydroelectric Power Plant, (ZHPP), located in Niger State, to halt the process, until the project is completed, up and running.
The position of the Senate was the outcome of an investigative hearing, organized by its Committee on Power, to ascertain the contractual milestone so far achieved on the project, the number of funds released, and the contracts still left to be done.
The investigation followed a senate resolution, after a thorough deliberation on a motion by the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Power, Gabriel Suswam, on Wednesday, November 23, 2022.
Although the Senate made it clear that it was not against the plan to concession the national asset, it was, however, worried by the seeming rush by the Ministry of Power, BPE and others involved in the deal, on behalf of the government and citizens of Nigeria, when the vital infrastructure that will help in evacuating the power generated, has not been put in place.
According to the Project Consultant, Bamidele Adewunmi, there are still a few contractual issues that must be straightened out, without which, “no concessionaire can take over the asset”.
Adewunmi’s submission cast some shadows of doubt on earlier assurances by the Minister of Power, Abubakar Aliyu, who said the project will be completed almost a year, before the target date of June 2024.
Interventions by the Director-General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Alexander Okoh, made little impact, despite explanations that there was no rush, and that his agency was only trying to ensure that government gets value for money, and can service the loan it received from Exim Bank of China, to build the power plant.
Even his other explanation that BPE will not concession the power plant until it is completed and tested, to be sure it can generate the 700 Mega Watts it was designed to achieve, was not enough to convince the Senate, especially as the man at the helms of affairs at BPE, was unable to put a value to the asset he intends to concession.
Not particularly comfortable with some of the submissions, the President of the Senate, Ahmed Lawan, who declared the public hearing opened, cautioned the BPE to avoid the pitfalls in previous privatization in the power sector, especially the sales of PHCN, to current power generation companies, GENCOs, and distribution companies, DISCOs.
“Once beaten, twice shy”, he said.
We should put our heads together to resolve all issues, before going into concession”.
So many of our assets were sold by BPE and they failed. Let’s do the proper thing and let’s give the concession to the proper investor. I objected to the privatization of PHCN to DISCOs and GENCOs then, and after some time, they came to ask for more money from the government to function. We spent another N1. 3trillion in the process.”.
The Senate Committee on Power shared in Lawan’s sentiment and subsequently called on everyone involved in the ongoing bid to concession the Zungeru Hydroelectric Power Plant (ZHPP), to apply the brakes for now.
(Editor: Ifeanyi Mark)
