By Yakubu LAAH InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-Chinedu Nebo, minister of power said on Monday that Nigeria is considering offers to sell more than $20 billion worth of assets of Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) according to a report by Bloomberg.
The reported quoted Nebo in a September 12 interview with Bloomberg Television Africa in Abuja as saying that the sale of state-owned Transmission Company of Nigeria may start in a few years ‘’The government will also focus on developing renewable energy projects to diversify its supply of electricity,’’ he said.
According to the Nigeria’s power minister, the interest now for transmission is over $20 billion and people are coming from everywhere.
The report affirmed that transmission is the only segment of the power industry in Nigeria that the government still controls as it seeks to curb regular blackouts in the country. It said Nigeria generates about a 10th of the power that South Africa does even though its population of about 170 million is more than three times larger.
President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration is spending $3.5 billion to boost transmission capacity by 50 percent and Nigeria sold 15 state-owned generation and distribution companies to raise funds.
Nebo further affirmed that the current transmission capacity of Abuja-based TCN is 5,500 megawatts compared with an installed generation capacity of 8,000 megawatts. ‘’ This means that if generation companies were operating at full capacity, the grid would be unable to transmit all of the power to homes. The government wants transmission capacity to exceed 6,000 megawatts by 2016,’’ the Nigeria’s power minister said.
Nebo says gas supply has been a limiting factor and his ministry is working with Deziani Allision-Madueke, Nigeria’s oil minister to make enough gas available to generation companies to match the transmission capacity by the end of 2015.
“Nigeria is moving in the direction of trying to have a robust energy mix,” he said.
Nebo said coal is another resource that could generate 3,000 to 5,000 megawatts of power in the next several years; after government reclaims unused coal blocks.
“We are working on making sure those coal blocks are taken away from those who have refused to develop them over the decades and are given to those who can actually develop them,” he said.
The power minister also said officials are deciding which model to adopt for the company’s sale. Manitoba Hydro-Electric Board of Canada’s three-year management contract ends next year. ‘’The process could take the form of a public-private partnership, a concession or a build-operate-transfer,’’ he affirmed.
Nebo disclosed that while divesting from most other parts of the power industry, the government is planning to invest more in renewable energy such as solar and hydro power.
“The government is very intent on making sure that the renewable energies kick off because we cannot continue to depend on only one or two means to continue giving electricity to our people,” he said.
He cited the planned 700-megawatt and 3,050-megawatt hydropower plants in Zungeru and Mambila; both of which are in central Nigeria.
