Senate yesterday ordered suspension of Federal Government's plan to raise a secured bond of N309 billion to finance the shortfall in the Nigerian electricity market pending the outcome of investigation to be carried out by its joint committees on Power and Privatization on the exercise.
The upper chamber specifically urged the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing and the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to immediately halt the raising of the bonds by Nigeria Bulk Electricity Trading Company (NBET).
It also mandated the committees on Power and Privatization to investigate the post-privatization performance of all players in the power sector in line with their performance agreement including the management and disbursement of any loans or bonds of the agencies in the sector.
In his submission, Senator Bukar, had said that the planned borrowing was being muted, despite series of interventions such as the bailout by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in March, 2015 to the tune of N213 billion through the Nigeria Electricity Sector Intervention (NESI).
He argued that the issuance of bonds will amount to not only spoon-feeding the operators in spite of their inefficiency, but that it would be at great cost to Nigerians as the risk of default would cause the crystallization of the Federal Government Sovereign Guarantee and lead to national energy crisis in the future.
He further noted that the shortfall has continued to escalate at the rate of about N15 billion per month which is equivalent to N500 million daily. He said the total shortfall as at December 31st, 2015, stood at N400 billion.
The lawmaker also noted that incidence of market shortfall is disincentive for new investors to venture their Nigerian electricity market adding, "this implies that the projected generating capacity is an illusion. As a matter of fact, any increment in generating capacity would further aggravate and escalate the market shortfall."
No comments: