A’Ibom Govt Plans Privatisation of Ibom Power Plant
Okon Bassey In line with global and modern investment practices, the Akwa Ibom State Government has said it is considering the privatisation of the Ibom Power Plant built in Ikot Abasi Local Government Area of the state.
The Special Adviser on Investment and Industrialisation to the state government, Chief Senas Ukpana, gave the indication while speaking with the Correspondent Chapel of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ)’s in Uyo, the state capital.
“Government policy is to privatise such investments and this is in line with global practice and in reality with modern times. It has been proven that it is difficult for government to do such business,” he stressed.
Ukpana, who doubles as the chairman of the State Investment Corporation (SIC) regretted that some members of the opposition have started reading wrong meaning and were trying to block the good intention of the state government to privatise the power plant.
It is worth noting that the Senator representing Uyo senatorial district in the Senate, Senator Ita Enang, had on a local radio programme recently advised the state government to reconsider any move aimed at selling the state owned independent power plant for the interest of the future of the state.
Although the senator said the planned privatisation of the power station has not received the blessing from stakeholders in the state, positing that selling the plant would not only jeopardise efforts at ensuring a 24-hour electricity coverage for the people of the state but could deny future generations of the state a valuable asset.
The special adviser to the state government equally used the platform to hint that a private investor has proposed to establish another power plant at the Eket senatorial district due to the availability of gas supply from the Uquo gas plant in Esit Eket Local Council of the state.
Ukpana dismissed the fears expressed by some people from the Oron area of the state over plans by the state government to relocate the proposed sea port planned for Ibaka in Mbo Local Council to Esit Eket.
According to him, such decisions were technical and would be taken by experts handling the project.
“The project is envisaged to cover a long area along the state coastline and the experts may decide to change the position of the exert location of the sea port due to reasons of location depth,” he added.