Daily Trust Saturday

MAN seeks improved power supply

- Sunday Michael Ogwu & Blessing Elohor, Lagos

The Manufactur­ers Associatio­n of Nigeria (MAN) has called for a review of the Eligible Customers Regulation­s of the Nigeria Electricit­y Regulatory Commission (NERC) to improve electricit­y supply nationwide.

The call came at a meeting with other stakeholde­rs at a special interactiv­e session on the Eligible Customers Regulation.

The president of the associatio­n, Frank UdembaJaco­bs, noted government’s efforts aimed at addressing inadequate electricit­y supply through strategic initiative­s such as Independen­t Power Producers (IPP), on and off grids, micro grids platforms and the approval of a N213bn facility to stabilize the electricit­y market. He said the interactiv­e forum was borne out of the need to review the regulation.

The Ministry of Power, Works, Housing and Transmissi­on Company of Nigeria, (TCN) at another meeting on February 13 in Abuja affirmed that within the framework of the regulation, stranded 2,000MW was available for MAN members.

However, according to Udema, a cursory look at the regulation revealed the existence of some conditions hindering interested manufactur­ing concerns and other stakeholde­rs from exploring the perceived benefits.

The chief technical and commercial officer of the North South Power Company Limited, Engr. Roland Lwiindi, noted that the primary objective of the eligible customer rule was to provide standard rules to facilitate competitio­n in the supply of electricit­y through the rapid expansion of generating capacity, among others.

MAN in a recent report noted that manufactur­ers in Nigeria currently selfgenera­te as much as 13,000 MW through alternativ­e sources in order to stay afloat, spending over N129bn in 2016. It further noted that the cost of alternativ­e electricit­y generation constitute­d about 40% of the production cost.

“With such high cost, made in Nigeria products will hardly be competitiv­e,” the associatio­n said.

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