Electricity Featured

Expert urges increased regulatory oversight powers for NERC

The Chairman, Momas Electricity Meter Manufacturing Company, Mr Kola Balogun, has called on the Federal Government to empower the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission on corporate governance intervention in the power sector.

He said in a statement, “NERC must be given the power to sack and appoint heads of power generation, transmission and distribution companies if the need arises just the way Central Bank of Nigeria is doing in the banking sector.

“There is an element of discipline that is required for us in the sector to have a way forward, and this is currently missing.”

Balogun also urged the CBN to carry out reorientation for commercial banks on funding requirements in the power sector to enable them to become key stakeholders.

He advised the new power minister, Mr Abubakar Aliyu, to chart a new roadmap for addressing the challenges across the power sector value chain.

He underscored the importance of consultation with the stakeholders in the sector and pointed out that a key transformation strategy would be to decentralise the power grid.

Balogun said, “We need to separate it in such a way that any state or local government can go into power generation and distribution to people within its area.

“So, power generation and distribution should be removed from the exclusive list and moved to the concurrent list. That is why we are advocating for franchising so that Nigerians will enjoy more supply.”

He added that the entire process should be done in a way that investors could get back their funds while their customers would get fair bills in line with global best practices.

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