GEJ is competent to rule again, let vote him in again! To complete his transformation agender. PRESIDENT Goodluck Ebele Jonathan’s government has made good its promises to use the plethora of projects and programmes conceived under its Transformation Agenda to significantly grow the economy and improve the living standard of the citizens. Barely one year after President Jonathan made that solemn transformational pledge of ‘promising less, but delivering more’, his administration has recorded landmark achievements in all aspects of national life.

Sound economic management
Since assuming office in May 29, 2011, President Goodluck Jonathan’s  economic team has been implementing far-reaching reforms and policies conceived in the economic blue print which seek, among other things, to revive the country’s infrastructure, diversify the economy from oil and create a vibrant economy.

The President had on several occasions reiterated the commitment of his administration to make Nigeria a better place and a global economic power, using the 2012-2015 Medium Term Fiscal Framework (MTFF) and Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) as the linchpin. Apart from setting up clear-cut guidelines for the four-year fiscal regime, the economic blueprint also recommends prudent management of the nation’s wealth to free up more funds for infrastructure projects and other developmental purposes. Finance minister has consistently reiterated government’s resolve to keep fiscal deficit under 3%, in the coming years.

Overall, the present administration states in the documents that its Fiscal Strategy and Economic Objectives over the 2012-2015 period will focus a large portion of spending on key sectors which include Security, Infrastructure (including Power), Agriculture, Manufacturing, Housing and Construction, Entertainment, Education, Health and ICT.

While delivering the 2012 budget, anchored on the new fiscal framework last December before the National Assembly, President Jonathan had assured that his administration has found the magic wand.  “My government is determined to pursue policies that will ensure a stable macroeconomic environment through a strong and prudent fiscal policy, manageable deficits, sustainable debt-GDP ratio of no more than 30%, and single digit inflation, thereby promoting real growth. We believe that these measures would engender a stable and competitive exchange rate and help to reverse the declining trend of our international reserves”, Jonathan declared.

Sealing leakages
The government has also taken steps to increase its non-oil revenues by blocking loopholes in the system, including partial removal of subsidy on imported petroleum products. Consequently, the committee on Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment (SURE) Programme launched by the government to manage the savings accruing from the petroleum import funds has set up an international metrics for monitoring, measuring and evaluating each project executed based on the Poverty and Social Impact Analyses model.

Chairman of the committee, Dr. Christopher Kolade, had announced that the programme specifically focused on service delivery and must remain so. “We are going beyond rhetorics to execute the mandate of making sure that the money budgeted is used to alleviate the immediate impact of petroleum subsidy discontinuation on Nigerians, accelerate economic transformation through investment in critical infrastructure projects so as to drive economic growth and achieve Vision 20:2020 and lay a foundation for the successful development of a national safety-net programme that is better targeted at the poor and most vulnerable on a continuous basis,” Dr. Kolade said.

Implementation of the SURE programme, part of which involves provision of public mass transit service, construction and maintenance of roads, provision of maternal and child health care service especially in rural areas and vocational training centres, has since begun. It is noteworthy that the process of recovering mismanaged funds from the subsidy programme has not only begun, but the Presidency is equally reforming the country’s tax system and improving internally generated revenue.

Interestingly too, the government has taken practical steps towards fulfilling its promise to drastically reduce recurrent expenditure to a sustainable level.

Stable power sector
Against all odds, Nigeria is on the verge of permanently resolving its power sector crisis. The government made significant leap towards solving the decades-long power sector crisis recently when it increased the electricity generation above 4,000 megawatts, the highest ever. Ministry of Power Prof Barth Nnaji disclosed that it had reduced the incidence of system collapses in the power sector. “Nigeria used to experience an average of four system collapse every month, that is, almost 50 system failures annually. Much as we have reduced the failures in the last one year, our goal is to reduce them to zero,” Prof. Nnaji declared.

According to him, the achievements recorded in the sector in recent time have raised fresh hopes of meeting the 15,000mw target by 2014 and 40,000mw for stable electricity in 2020. Prof. Nnaji recently announced that despite the challenges facing the sector, the government has made stable electricity a top priority by the end of 2012. “We acknowledge that in many homes there is no power. But we are working hard to improve that. Our goal is to make Nigerians have power continuously for 24 hours. We have now set up a framework for all stakeholders to be involved in delivering power. Therefore, we hope to deliver additional 1,500MW of power to the grid by year end”, he promised.

As part of plans to achieve stable power supply, the government launched the power sector reform road-map and invested huge resource in the project. Also, as part of measures to achieve sustainable industrial growth, the government had put in place certain measures to attract foreign investors into the power sector. Notable development in this regard was the establishment of the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading (NBET) Plc, to enhance smooth operations between the various independent power producers and distribution companies. 

In its bid to make the sector attractive to private investment, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) also introduced new electricity tariff to take effect from June, 2012. ”There are opportunities in that; this is a business which is not serving us efficiently enough, generating revenue of N300-N400 billion. We estimate that within the next 5 years, it will go well over N1.5 trillion,” explained, NERC Chairman, Dr. Sam Amadi. The commission has also made provision for free meters in a bid to help solve the problems of estimated billings.

The initiatives are already bearing fruits, as the government has struck a number of power development deals. In March, Nigeria received the highest expression of investment support by a foreign investor in the power sector when the federal government and the General Electric (GE) Energy of the United States signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for $10 billion power projects. Under the MoU, which was signed at the Nigerian High Commission in London, the $10 billion would be invested in various power plants with combined capacity of 10,000mw, with GE taking 15 per cent equity in each of the power plants.

The government, on May 15, signed another agreements with two French companies, valued at about $200 million or N3.14 billion, for the expansion of the country’s transmission network. The deal which also enjoyed the blessing of the French government will see the companies undertake the feasibility studies for the transmission upgrade, and thereafter, select and construct a high voltage transmission line and substations. Transmission hiccups remain the biggest challenge in Nigeria’s power delivery system, as the existing 330 and 132 kv network continue to suffer from prolonged and frequent outages, thus underscoring the need for fortification. Sequel to the new deal, the French power firms — Electricite de France (EDF) and the Enterprise de Transporte et Distribution D’electricity (ETDE) — will source the funds from their home government in form of grants to execute the projects.

According to the Ministry of Power, the French companies are to partner with a Nigerian company, Transnational Energy and Power Systems (TEPS) Ltd, for the execution of the project, in line with government’s local content policy.  “This is a sign of investors growing confidence on the power sector reform. We believe that the Jonathan administration is on the threshold of providing Nigerians with the true dividends of democracy and democratic leadership,” commended the CEO of TEPS, Prince Albert Awofisayo.

The federal government also sealed a N240 billion ($1.6 billion) energy and housing deal with a consortium of Swiss and European investors last September. The group, comprising Seagas Services Limited and Oceanmar Services Limited, was led by the First Deputy Prime Minister and Head of International Affairs and Investments, Republic of Kosovo, Behgjet Pacolli.

The government’s effort to improve power generation in the country, especially through renewable energy, also got a boost last May when it received a grant of $7.84 million (N2billion) from the government of Japan. The donation under “The Project for Introduction of Clean Energy by Solar Electricity Generation System” was granted to Nigeria for the provision of solar electricity generation systems and to tackle climate change.

Besides wooing foreign investors, the government has taken practical measures to involve local investors in the efforts to solve the country’s electricity crisis. To this end, the NERC recently issued two new regulations that empower states, local governments and communities with the financial muscle to generate and distribute electricity. Through the regulations entitled: “NERC Regulation on Embedded Generation 2012”, the government has practically relinquished its exclusive rights over power.

Meanwhile, recent investigation reveal noticeable improvement in power supply in many parts of the country, on the strength of government’s interventions in the sector. Certain areas that experienced severe outages are now enjoying hours of power supply daily.

Prof. Nnaji, who declared that the improvement in power supply in parts of the country is not a fluke, vows to sustain the tempo. “We will certainly sustain what we have achieved and we are taking deliberate steps to attain this. We have a programme to recover as soon as possible lost capacities at existing power plants. Coupled with the scheduled inauguration of some plants being built under the National Integrated Power Project, we are optimistic of achieving the target of 6,000mw in 2012,” he said.

In conjunction with other economic team players, the minister has taken proactive measures to tackle inefficiency in the power sector. One of such measures was the placement of all chief executives of the 18 PHCN successor companies on performance indicators to engender efficient service delivery. “Every CEO who meets the expectations of the people will be rewarded and any CEO who fails to justify the confidence reposed in him will have to go elsewhere. Competence is the guiding principle,” Nnaji said.

To demonstrate that he meant his words, the minister had sacked non-performing managers and chief executives in the sector, replacing them with more competent ones. And since he started wielding the big stick, services across the distribution and transmission channels have improved tremendously.