At the physical handover of Eko Distribution Company, last weekend, Mr. Charles Momoh, Chairman, West Power and Gas, the successor company, spoke on their plans for the distribution company, as captured by Sebastine Obasi, excerpts:

How do you feel about the taking over?

I feel very happy. This is because the benefits of this transaction to the economy are immeasurable. Everyone knows that the key to our economic transformation is the availability of power. As you know lack of power adds at least 30 percent to our cost of production. What has happened to power for decades is that government has pretended they have the capacity and the resources to do it but no government has such ability to do that.

What we started and what has finished today is the privatization of the power sector.  You saw what happened when the telecommunications sector was privatized. There has been a lot of investments in that sector. Many more Nigerians now have access to telephone. And of course, today, telecommunication remains the number one growth sector in the country. That is exactly what we expect to see with power.

What are you going to do with the workforce?

They are still working for us.

For how long?

Well we will keep them and weed off gradually as we go ahead. We will keep the good ones and continue to assist them. We will develop a lot in training, in manpower development and keep improving the system. From the record available to us, Eko Distribution company has been a jewel among distribution companies in Nigeria. This is in spite of the operating climate around them and we thank them for this.

I want to assure them that at West Power and Gas, everything will be done to create a new working environment in the spirit of change. We will therefore demand change on their part to make sure that we build a great and successful company that we can all be proud of. We have the responsibility to light up Lagos and keep it lit. This is a task before us which we must do and do it profitably.

This company, West Power and Gas is committed to spending over $250 million in the next few years. Our homes and businesses deserve the chance to thrive without the added expense of generators and constant threat of outages.

It will take time. It will take solitude. It will take commitment. It will take collaboration. But as with most things, the only difficulty that could arise is within ourselves. We know that this will not happen overnight, but we are optimistic that only success will follow.

I want to make a special mention of our own state, Lagos. It is our intention to develop a close partnership with them on the issue of power supply. We are aware that the state government is aggressively working on the power situation in the state to enable it pursue its cardinal developmental programmes for citizens and its inhabitants in one of the fastest growing metropolis in the world. We commend this effort and pledge to work with them to ensure that Lagos State lights up.

We look forward to continuing collaboration with our partner, BPE, our regulator, NERC, the Transmission Company of Nigeria and most importantly, our consumers.
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You said you are investing $250 million. What areas are this money going to be invested in?

We are going to be investing in metering. We are going to be investing in cleaning up the system; cables, transformers and making sure that everything is in line with what we have specified.

Do you think that amount will be enough for this type of cleaning?

Well, it is not going to be enough, but we start with that.  One step at a time. Our strategy is to continue to improve the system.

How much of the technical capability of this network do you know?

We are just entering. Once we get in we study it and we develop it. We are not promising anything right now. We are going to work hard. We have been given a huge task. We will continue to improve on it.