Govt to lay off 50,000 PHCN workers
By John Ameh, Abuja
Thursday, 28 Oct 2010


PHCN Installation
The Federal Government said on Wednesday that there was no going back on plans to privatise the Power Holding Company of Nigeria in order to stabilise electricity supply in the country.


The Special Adviser on Power to President Goodluck Jonathan, Prof. Barth Nnaji, at a meeting with the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Dimeji Bankole, in Abuja on Wednesday, disclosed that about 50,000 PHCN workers would be laid off next year as part of the privatisation process.


Nnaji, who is also the Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Power Reform, explained that after the lay-off, the 18 companies carved out of PHCN would be handed over to private investors.


He hinted that about $900m or N135bn would be set aside as the severance package of the workers who would be affected.


Members of the taskforce had visited Bankole to brief him on the progress made so far on power reform and to seek the assistance of the House in passing supportive legislation.


The Chairman of the House Committee on Power, Mr. Patrick Ikhariale, agreed that there was no alternative to the privatisation of PHCN if Nigeria must have stable power supply.


But Bankole told the committee that much as its proposals were attractive, they required detailed analysis by the House.


He said that the Executive arm of government did not consult the National Assembly before it embarked on the current power reform, hence the House might not rush into approving any proposals.


He recalled that funding was not the problem of the power sector in the country but ”lack of consultations” with relevant stakeholders.


The speaker noted that several billions of dollars had been spent on the sector in the past without results.


According to Bankole, the House also endorsed many reports on how to improve the power situation in the country but the Executive did not act on them.


He also sought to know what would happen to the investments of those who had filled the gap in power generation by marketing generators and diesel to ensure that the economy did not grind to a halt.


But in a document Nnaji submitted to the House, the committee argued that so long as PHCN remained in operation, Nigeria would continue to face problems.


“There is a high operating cost in the company, gulping over N8bn annually, in which staff salaries and pension take 80 per cent of it,” the document stated.


It added that over 70 per cent of the cost of running the power sector was consumed at the level of distribution.


”The whole idea for the future of the sector is to cut a good deal for the workers for a more efficient power output for the country,” it said.


http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art201010282563010

Tension and trouble looms! These workers will hold government to ransom.

this is a good move!!!

as long as they keep true to their words of compensation.

Let them take the bull by the horn.