Nnaji orders 50% pay rise for PHCN workers this month
ABUJA— Minister of Power, Professor Bart Nnaji, has directed the management of the 18 companies created out of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, to start paying the workers a 50 per cent salary increase from this month.
In a memo sent to the chief executives of the successor companies, yesterday, Nnaji said the Federal Government had agreed to pay the outstanding first three months of the new salary package, effective June 2011.
This, he said, will enable CEOs of the successor- companies, who are running the companies as autonomous business entities, to henceforth begin paying the new salary package from September.
PHCN hitherto generates about N11 billion monthly and utilises over N7 billion on staff salary and emoluments.
The 50 per cent salary increase will bring the new wage bill to over N11bn, leaving the holding company with a balance of N2 billion monthly.
The minister stated that this situation was far from satisfactory as PHCN still has to pay N8 billion monthly to gas and electricity suppliers such as Shell, AES, Agip, Rivers and Akwa Ibom state governments which operate Independent Power Projects, and meet other operational costs.
He said: “At least N17 billion has to be generated monthly to defray operational costs and pay staff salaries monthly.”
Nnaji expressed optimism that the N17 billion benchmark could be met if PHCN management and staff increased power supply to the public and plugged some leakages within the system.
“A situation where our efficiency rate improved at 15%, instead of 35%, last month is not good enough”, he declared.
He continued: “Our commercial losses, which stand at 40% largely because of improper metering and non-metering, are still unacceptably high.”
Professor Nnaji also urged the PHCN leadership to stop such sharp practices as bypassing of air conditioners, pressing irons, welding machines and other heavy power consuming gadgets in the metering system.
The minister reminded the CEOs that their monthly salary bills would balloon further with the ongoing regularization of the appointments of thousands of Nigerians who “have been working as so-called casual workers”.
Each of the 5,000-10,000 casual workers, according to Nnaji, would have his appointment regularized from the date of his or her appointment.
“It is, therefore, incumbent on you to devise creative and productive ways to meet your primary obligations to these employees once the biometric data of the casual workers are completed and they are converted to the regular staff”, noted the minister.
