FG GENERATES N1TN FROM SALE OF PUBLIC ASSETS

feasible option was to attract private sector investments, adding that BPE’s current initiative in its 2021 work plan and additional roles in the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) space is poised to impact the economy positively.

This, he added, is in the areas of infrastructure development, improved health care service delivery, power generation and supply, employment creation, food security, and human capital development.

On the speculations that the federal government is planning to privatise the TCN, BPE's Director, Energy Department, Mr. Yunana Malo, said there was no such plan to privatise the company, adding that what is being considered is reform with a view to give it out to a concessionaire for optimum value.

He said the transmission was the weak link in the power chain, as the generation component, which was privatised had since attracted a lot of investments, making it more efficient.

According to him, generation capacity has improved, while 60 per cent of the distribution segment has also been partially privatised and is beginning to pick up through the federal government's reforms.

Malo said: "The seemingly weak link in the transmission component; it is still 100 per cent owned by the federal government.

“The idea is to think outside the box and bring in solutions that will make the transmission component service the value chain and make it more efficient.

“Government is not thinking of privatising; it is thinking of ways and means that the private capital can be brought into the transmission component without giving out the ownership of Transmission Company."

The BPE, he said, would give out the transmission segment in concession, “so that we can have somebody building the high tension lines, covering areas that have not been reached or to maintain the existing ones to get maximum value, to move from the radial system we have today into a mesh."

He added that the idea is not to privatise but to reform and make it efficient by bringing in private sector operational modalities within the transmission company.

On the federal government’s 40 per cent stake in the Distribution Companies (DISCOS), Malo said the shares were still intact and protected by BPE.