The Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED) says the Federal Government failed to release N100 billion to the 11 electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos) distributing electricity across the country.
It also expressed concerns about the recent “restructuring” of the five DisCos, as announced by the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) on July 5, 2022, in collaboration with the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).
ANED Executive Director of Research and Advocacy, Chief Sunday Oduntan, announced this in a statement yesterday in Abuja.
He said: “Because we view the ‘restructuring’ to be inconsistent with all the guidelines and processes necessary to comply with the framework of privatization agreements and the rule of law, we believe that it is reasonable to conclude that the resultant outcome has been an expropriation or backdoor renationalization of the DisCos by the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN).
“Such renationalization or expropriation must be viewed through a historical context as necessary for a proper understanding of the performance challenges that the DisCos have been faced with, since privatization.
“Fundamentally, the basis of privatization was flawed from the beginning, due to conditions that were not met by the FGN, while expecting the DisCos to meet their performance obligations.
“Not only were the investors shortchanged because of insufficient and unreliable data that was provided by BPE to them during the privatization process, but the government also committed to and failed to deliver.
