Barth Nnaji Now Special Adviser on Power
, Head Presidential Task Force on Power •FG to spend N45.77bn on electricity subsidy
From Kunle Aderinokun and Sufuyan Ojeifo in Abuja, 06.22.2010

In line with his promise to strengthen the administrative structure to drive reform in the power sector, President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday named a former Minister of Science and Technology, Prof. Barth Nnaji, as his Special Adviser on Power.
The Federal Government has also budgeted N45.77 billion for electricity subsidy in the 2010 fiscal year, Accountant General of the Federation, Mr. Ibrahim Dankwambo, said yesterday.

Nnaji is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering of the Universities of Massachusetts and Pittsburgh in the United States .
By his appointment, Nnaji will now head the Presidential Task Force on Power, which is saddled with the responsibility of developing and driving the action plan for the attainment of steady power supply in the country.
Jonathan had during his Presidential Media Chat on Sunday hinted that the appointment of the Special Adviser on Power would be announced yesterday.

He said so while responding to questions on the progress of reform in the power sector, which the Federal Government under the late President Umaru Musa Yar’ Adua set out to achieve.
A statement issued yesterday by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Ima Niboro, said Nnaji is expected to work with other members of the Presidential Task Force on Power “to evolve workable strategies for rapid improvement of power generation, transmission and distribution in the country.”

He said members of the task force, which would report directly to the President and the Presidential Action Committee on Power, include the Permanent Secretary (Ministry of Power); Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC); Managing Director, Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN); Managing Director, Niger-Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC); and Director General, Bureau for Public Procurement (BPP).
Other members of the task force, according to him, are the Director-General Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE); Accountant-General of the Federation; Chief Executive, Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC); Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of two power distribution companies; CEOs of two generating companies; Director of Power in the Ministry of Power and the Senior Special Assistant to the President (Special Projects.)

According to the statement, “The newly-appointed Special Adviser will also work with seven Special Assistants who will oversee the monitoring of performance and progress on specific power sector issues in the areas of generation, transmission, distribution, fuel-to-power, the National Integrated Power Project, BPE, regulatory issues and other transition enablers, and labour issues.”
Jonathan had during the media chat hinted that the Federal Government might opt for privatization to bolster power generation and distribution.

According to him, “We believe that generation must be completely privatized. No matter what, if you bring government to continue to generate, you would never get anywhere.
“Distribution must be completely privatized because there have been some leakages through one way or the other. Government can concentrate on just transmission and; even that transmission government can still give it out to consultants at a particular arrangement.”
He said that for now, government was trying to see if some of the transmission and generation projects that were on-going could be completed soon.

Dankwambo, who spoke to select-journalists in Abuja, however said that the dream of uninterrupted power supply may not be realised any time soon as the Federal Government did not possess the requisite financial resources to develop the energy sector.
The private sector that would have supported efforts of the government by investing in the sector, he expalined, were not encouraged due to heavy subsidisation by the later .
Going forward, Dankwambo therefore advised the Federal Government to immediately deregulate the energy sector, so as to drastically improve electricity supply in the country.

He said with the long history of power price determination and its attendant adverse effect on the overall socio-economic development of the nation and its people, only full deregulation of the sector will create the needed incentives for potential investments required to turn around the sector.
“If the energy sector is not deregulated, the truth is that only the Federal Government will be able to invest because the necessary incentives to attract and encourage private sectors' investments are not there”, the AGF said.

Dankwambo decried the current arrangement where the cost per unit of power is N22 for government to purchase and thereafter sell for only N6. He insisted that such arrangement amounted to wastage of scare resources that would have been channeled into other productive areas of development.
“The current situation is unsustainable because government cannot afford to continue buying power from independent producers at N22 only to sell at N6 to the public, thereby incurring a huge loss of N16 per unit cost.

“This is definitely an abnormality that should not be allowed to continue in the overall interest of Nigeria ’s socio-economic development and growth,” he added.

Good news.

@post

Just wondering what the "From Enugu" in the title is all about.

For me, it doesn't matter where he is from. Results will be what determines his capability. Not his town of origin.

isnt this like making Jim Ovia the Special Adviser on Banking and Financial Services

_{and what is happening to Prof's power plant it was scheduled for 2008}

EVANS4GOD:

Barth Nnaji Now Special Adviser on Power
, Head Presidential Task Force on Power •FG to spend N45.77bn on electricity subsidy
From Kunle Aderinokun and Sufuyan Ojeifo in Abuja, 06.22.2010

In line with his promise to strengthen the administrative structure to drive reform in the power sector, President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday named a former Minister of Science and Technology, Prof. Barth Nnaji, as his Special Adviser on Power.
The Federal Government has also budgeted N45.77 billion for electricity subsidy in the 2010 fiscal year, Accountant General of the Federation, Mr. Ibrahim Dankwambo, said yesterday.

Nnaji is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering of the Universities of Massachusetts and Pittsburgh in the United States .
By his appointment, Nnaji will now head the Presidential Task Force on Power, which is saddled with the responsibility of developing and driving the action plan for the attainment of steady power supply in the country.
Jonathan had during his Presidential Media Chat on Sunday hinted that the appointment of the Special Adviser on Power would be announced yesterday.

He said so while responding to questions on the progress of reform in the power sector, which the Federal Government under the late President Umaru Musa Yar’ Adua set out to achieve.
A statement issued yesterday by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Ima Niboro, said Nnaji is expected to work with other members of the Presidential Task Force on Power “to evolve workable strategies for rapid improvement of power generation, transmission and distribution in the country.”

He said members of the task force, which would report directly to the President and the Presidential Action Committee on Power, include the Permanent Secretary (Ministry of Power); Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC); Managing Director, Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN); Managing Director, Niger-Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC); and Director General, Bureau for Public Procurement (BPP).
Other members of the task force, according to him, are the Director-General Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE); Accountant-General of the Federation; Chief Executive, Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC); Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of two power distribution companies; CEOs of two generating companies; Director of Power in the Ministry of Power and the Senior Special Assistant to the President (Special Projects.)

According to the statement, “The newly-appointed Special Adviser will also work with seven Special Assistants who will oversee the monitoring of performance and progress on specific power sector issues in the areas of generation, transmission, distribution, fuel-to-power, the National Integrated Power Project, BPE, regulatory issues and other transition enablers, and labour issues.”
Jonathan had during the media chat hinted that the Federal Government might opt for privatization to bolster power generation and distribution.

According to him, “We believe that generation must be completely privatized. No matter what, if you bring government to continue to generate, you would never get anywhere.
“Distribution must be completely privatized because there have been some leakages through one way or the other. Government can concentrate on just transmission and; even that transmission government can still give it out to consultants at a particular arrangement.”
He said that for now, government was trying to see if some of the transmission and generation projects that were on-going could be completed soon.

Dankwambo, who spoke to select-journalists in Abuja, however said that the dream of uninterrupted power supply may not be realised any time soon as the Federal Government did not possess the requisite financial resources to develop the energy sector.
The private sector that would have supported efforts of the government by investing in the sector, he expalined, were not encouraged due to heavy subsidisation by the later .
Going forward, Dankwambo therefore advised the Federal Government to immediately deregulate the energy sector, so as to drastically improve electricity supply in the country.

He said with the long history of power price determination and its attendant adverse effect on the overall socio-economic development of the nation and its people, only full deregulation of the sector will create the needed incentives for potential investments required to turn around the sector.
“If the energy sector is not deregulated, the truth is that only the Federal Government will be able to invest because the necessary incentives to attract and encourage private sectors' investments are not there”, the AGF said.

Dankwambo decried the current arrangement where the cost per unit of power is N22 for government to purchase and thereafter sell for only N6. He insisted that such arrangement amounted to wastage of scare resources that would have been channeled into other productive areas of development.
“The current situation is unsustainable because government cannot afford to continue buying power from independent producers at N22 only to sell at N6 to the public, thereby incurring a huge loss of N16 per unit cost.

“This is definitely an abnormality that should not be allowed to continue in the overall interest of Nigeria ’s socio-economic development and growth,” he added.

you see why i say we shouldn't let non-engineers talk about power? it costs NGN10ish to produce it, not NGN22 the 22 comes about if you take the distribution work to be done plus interest payments and profit. . .16naira loss ke? i know it's bad but we shouldn't lie to ourselves now

Dis Guy:

isnt this like making Jim Ovia the Special Adviser on Banking and Financial Services

_{and what is happening to Prof's power plant it was scheduled for 2008}

i'm with you on this one o. . .

Any data backing up your N10 per unit production claim? @Netotse

Kobojunkie:

Any data backing up your N10 per unit production claim? @Netotse

i've pasted links again and again, i really should find time to go through my posts instead of trawling the internet er'time someone wants proof

this is a link to an article where the minister of state for power mentions it(he's an architect so he too deserves to be shot. . .lol), he's a better source than an accountant who's prolly reading something prepared for him by God-knows-who. . .

link

i've also attached a pdf that contains a power point from the NERC where they state that the costs are arnd 10naira. . .

What

Its great that the Government has finally gotten the courage to privatize power. Finally our power problems are about to be over, just like our telecommunications palaver has been solved by privatization. Barth Nnaji is an advocate of Privatization!!

We left everything in the hands of Nitel and all they could deliver is failure and 450,000 decrepit lines. We introduced MTN, Glo, Zain, Starcomms, Multilinks Visafone and all the rest and Kabooom! overnight we have 70 millions lines!!!

With PHCN abi NEPA, we have just 3000+ Megawatts, privatize power and overnight we would have 30,000- 50,000 Megawatts.
Finally the government is doing something right. Thats the reason why Jonathan must be supported to stay on. If not, someone else(most likely a Babangida, Buhari or an Atiku) will come and reverse everything.