1 March 2010
Four States Seek Electricity Distribution License
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Article By Bassy Udo on 1st March, 2010.
Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River and Rivers State governments are considering incorporating a joint venture company that would undertake the business of electricity distribution as a way of guaranteeing adequate power supply to their residents.
Electricity supply in these states has remained poor, despite investing huge resources in Independent Power Projects (IPP) in their domains.
The Akwa Ibom State governor, Godswill Akpabio, who spoke with NEXT in Abuja on Friday, urged the Federal Government to loosen its grip on the power sector by deregulating generation, transmission and distribution, to allow for more investments.
License to transmit and distribute power
“The state governments, like other investors, are given license to generate electricity, while the power to transmit and distribute to the consumers still resides with the Federal Government. Unless transmission and distribution responsibilities are deregulated for other investors to come in, the poor electricity supply situation in the country would persist.
“It is a very sad that the Akwa Ibom State Government has constructed and commissioned a 191-mega watt (MW) Independent Power Plant (IPP), yet the people cannot enjoy the full benefits of the investment, because distribution is not in the hands of the state government. The Federal Government should issue electricity distribution licenses to states that are capable of doing so,” the governor said.
In this regard, Mr. Akpabio said the four states approached the Federal Government for an approval to incorporate a joint venture company for electricity distribution in the region, adding that the Minister of Power, Lanre Babalola, has already assured them of support for the project by presenting a memorandum to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) for approval for an operating license.
Read the rest of this article in 234Next
One Comment so far...
John Wellington Says:
11 March 2010 at 4:34 pm.
What the Governor of Akwa Ibom State Said is one of the major problems of this country, if license of distribution be granted to states that own independent power supply, this issue of power will be solve.
