By Clara Nwachukwu

In a couple days from now, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, will be sworn-in as the fourth elected civil president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, a development many Nigerians and the international community are hopeful that the new government would now settle down to work the work, after so much promises.

Players in the economy are already looking forward to some major policy decisions that would impact positively on the socio-economic landscape of the country. This optimism, is, however, based on the electoral promises made to Nigerians as well as the international community during the just concluded general election.

Specifically, stakeholders, particularly the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC; the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, MAN, as well as other interest groups are particularly concerned about the power situation in the country and have repeatedly proffered solutions out of the current underdevelopment occasioned by the collapse of the power sector.

At every available opportunity, the Federal Government is urged to as a matter of priority, give all the necessary support and demonstrate commitment to addressing the hydra problem in the sector.

They argued that the power sector reform initiated by Jonathan in 2010, under the Roadmap for Power Sector Reform, be pursued to its logical conclusion with the participation of private sector operators in generation and distribution of electricity to the people and business entities.

Recently, Vice President Namadi Sambo, while on a working visit to the Sapele NIPP power station being constructed by the international conglomerate – Marubeni Corporation of Japan, through its subsidiary, Marubeni Engineering West Africa Limited, MEWAL, expressed satisfaction with the level of work done so far.

He expressed the hope that with the commissioning of the plant before the year ended, more electricity would be available to Nigerians from the grid.

“With the level of work I have seen here, I have congratulated the Delta State Governor for being lucky to have such a brand new power station located in his state, because the Sapele power station is ready to give power to Nigerians and the host state will benefit immensely from this, as the quality of supply will improve and this will boost economic activities as well as job creation in the host state,” he said.

The Minister of State for Power, Mr. Nuhu Somo Wya, while also inspecting some power plants being constructed under the National Integrated Power Project, NIPP, said, government is poised to encourage the private operators under the Private Public Partnership in moving the power sector forward, adding that this policy direction are all embedded in the Road Map, which was launched by the President last year.

According to him, the Power Sector Reform Act 2005, is now being implemented holistically as directed by Jonathan, which is expected to attract more private sector players both foreign and local to be an active participants in the reform process aimed at ensuring sustainable power supply in the country.

The Bureau of Public Enterprises, BPE, had long commenced the process of privatisation of the existing utilities in the power sector under the monopoly of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN.

Under the BPE programme, about 18 successor companies in the generation and distribution units are up for grabs by the private companies.

Stakeholders insist that the only way out of the complete reform in the sector, as current operations, especially in the generation and distribution arms are far below optimum levels due mainly to obsolete equipment.

This, they noted, is because public sector approach to the management of infrastructure in Nigeria does not allow for efficiency and excellent service delivery in the country.

For instance, available statistics on daily power delivery reveal that all the existing power stations under the PHCN have cumulative installed generating capacity of about 6,000Megawatts, MW, of which actual generation is between 3,200 and 3,800MW. For a country with over 150 million people and is desirous of becoming one of the top 20 most industrialised countries of the world by the Year 2020, there is the need for urgent intervention in the power sector to meet national target and aspirations.

The inability of the public sector operators to effectively maintain and manage existing power infrastructure in line with global best practice, perhaps explain current epilepsy in the sector, resulting in continued decay at the expense of the ever growing population, industrial and economic.

Sadly, available information reveal that companies that have expressed interest in purchasing the power infrastructure offered for sale under the ongoing privatisation exercise are not offering competitive price for them on account of their poor state.

Reports indicate that companies are being very cautious in making investment decisions while conducting due diligence on the state of these facilities.

Indeed, while the journey towards the reform of the power sector is progressively pursued , it is anticipated that those in positions of the authority especially at the Ministry of Power; the Presidential Task Force on Power; the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC; the PHCN; and the Niger Delta Power Holding Company Limited, NDPHC, would engage reputed engineering firms with proven track records, who have pride themselves over the years in service delivery in the sector with a view to engaging them in this partnership drive to salvage the entire power sector of the country.

Partnership in this regard could be in form of equity holding, Operate and Management contract, O&M; Build Operate and Transfer, BOT, and a host of other private sector involvement strategies. Many international engineering firms such as Marubeni/Hitachi, GE, Rockson Engineering and Chinese companies, and ABB are key players among many others.

These companies have played significant roles in the various development phases of engineering, procurement and construction, EPC, of independent power plants, transmission lines and distribution network across the country.

Some of these companies have a long history in Nigeria’s power sector. For example, Marubeni, with over 42 years of operation in Nigeria, built many of the the existing PHCN power stations such as the Jebba Hydro Power station; the 1,320MW Egbin Thermal plant; Delta II and III power stations in Ughelli, Delta State of 300MW; 600MW Delta IV power plant.

In addition, the Japanese firm is also handling the construction of the NIPP Sapele and Ihvobor power stations located in Delta and Edo states respectively, with 451MW capacity each, as well as the 561MW Calabar Power Plant in Cross River state.

Furthermore, the company has expressed interest to become one of the major contractors handling the power plants being executed by the NDPHC.

As part of the efforts to ensure sustainable power supply in Nigeria, the Federal Government is also exploring the bilateral relationships with other countries such as the one between Nigeria and Japan. Through such relationships, the power sector has received additional boost as the Japanese Government, through its development programmes has given a fast track Grant of JPY2billion or N3.5billion to government for the rehabilitation of one of the generating units at Jebba.

The application for the grant was made in November 2010, in response to the Vice President’s directive through the Federal Ministry of Power to the Japanese Government, to urgently address the critical situation in the sector. Indeed, in the spirit of international cooperation and support for Nigeria and its people, Japan, despite its current internal challenges and huge losses resulting from the recent earthquakes and Tsunami, the grant was fast tracked. The Japan International Cooperation Agency, JICA Investigation Team visited Nigeria in January 2011, to assess the Jebba Power Plant, leading to the approval of the grant in March, by the Japanese cabinet.

Already, government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, with the Japanese government for the grant, which is targeted at restoring the failed unit at the Jebba plant, which was damaged in April 2009.

In addition to the grant the Power Ministry in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance, applied for another facility under the Japanese Government Soft Loan Programme, to obtain the necessary finance to pursue the rehabilitation and major overhaul for the Jebba Hydro Power station. Discussions with the relevant Japanese agencies are at advanced also in top gear for a favourable concessional loan of about US$50million to $100 million.

It is imperative to note that the 540MW Jebba Hydro Power Station located in Niger State, which was completed in 1985, is the most reliable of the hydro power plants in Nigeria today.

Its activities in the country have no doubt elicited great technology and economic ties between Nigeria challenges of power sector reform and multinational remedy approach.