The Federal Government has disclosed plans to source from the private sector, part of the $10 billion required to provide regular electricity across Nigeria within the next 10 years.
This formed the crux of the deliberation when the Director General of the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), Dr Jobson Oseodion Ewalefoh paid a courtesy visit to the Minister of Power Chief Adebayo A. Adelabu, on Tuesday in Abuja.
The duo agreed that in view of the funding and technical requirements needed to advance the power sector in Nigeria, it had become imperative to seek private sector input through Public Private Partnership (PPP) in co-financing and providing expertise that will ensure optimal performance of power infrastructure.
Speaking during the meeting, the ICRC Boss said that in view of the importance of power to the economic development of Nigeria, optimizing performance of existing infrastructure as well as funding new ones was imperative.
He acknowledged the challenges in the sector were hydra-headed and went beyond funding alone, adding that with such inter-agency collaboration and partnership with the private sector, the limitations can be addressed.
Reacting to a comment by the minister, the DG said through its regulatory processes, the ICRC can midwife private sector investment of part of the $10bn in the power sector to provide regular electricity, attract more foreign direct investment to other sectors and ultimately grow the economy.
“Revamping the power sector requires planning, it involves investments and it takes time. So, we need to collaborate to solve the issues in this sector.
In his response the minister commended the DG for the initiative to visit the ministry with the proposal of advancing investment in the power sector through PPPs.
“For us to achieve 24 hours power supply across Nigeria in the next 5 to 10 years there is a minimum funding requirement of about 10 billion dollars in the next 10 years.
