About time

Right move in the right direction.
This will create competition and efficiency in the power sector just like what Gsm did to the communication sector. Consumers will be better for it by way of consumer surplus.
I cant wait for dat day when light will be constant.
As for PHCN and their corrupt staff,is good riddance to bad rubbish! They are monumental fraud and saboteurs. Their clog in the wheel of national progress is phenomena. Am glad the president and Nigerians did not bulge at their protest to continue their acts.

Abeg when are they going to privatise the Nigerian Police, at the moment their brutality knows no bounds, may be we can even have some Beninose or Togolese Gendarmes as their replacement I'm sure they couldn't be brutal like the present NPF.

Hope they privatize the Nigerian Police Force too. Outsource Nigerian Police Force duties to private security firms.

NAJALYN:

This is a step in the right direction. Am for anything that will guarantee Nigerians stable & constant power supply. Ghana, a small country enjoys regular power supply. We the giant of Africa should have put our house in order long before now so all will acknowledge that we are actually the giant of Africa. Thanks to the Federal Government for trying to actualise our dream of regular power supply.

Who be Giant of Africa ? Oboi, I beg stop using that expression before I arrest you now !

GOOD MOVE GEJ.I have always believed in you.Atleast there was no GEJ critics on this post.

Keep it up GEJ!

NEPA was founded in the depths of Hell!

I dont trust GEJ in the slightest. . . .not unti he wins this upcoming election. I doubt he has much in store

The privatization will be a very good way to liberate this country from our so called light-phobia leaders, if only the incubated idea will not metamophose into a political-party-runned establishment which might be later used to absorb and catapult their ignoramus relatives, for the sole purpose of enriching their porousity-suffering pockets, which will in no time bring the country back to point zero again. The process of amalgamating these old-fashioned, half-brained, primitive people and crucifying them upside down is in the pipeline, you all should stay tuned.

This action is long overdue (remember the promise of state of emergency by this regime back in 2007), no big kudos to the mover.
The reforms required in the power sector is over-hyped; shouldn't be a big deal and shouldn't take time if stakeholders (excluding consumers) decide to be sincere in resolving this anomaly (which is a goose with the golden eggs for some).

Good Development.

Privatization= competition among various companies.

Competition = advancement.

Govt. is on the right track but they are slow, they should please increase there speed.
The fumes from generating sets are killing us.

l am happy with d new development.nigerians at all level shuld embrace d government of change, toward building a new nigeria dat will give birth 2 a new,efficient and reliable power sector.

Positive development

GEJ,may God bless the work of your hands.May the implementation be smooth and May we never experience NEPA/PHCN in our individual lives again,AMEN!!!

I give my full support.

It's not enough to sell PHCN. our electrical grid is the epitome of inefficiency. i will believe that they are committed to giving us a system that works when our power grid is decentralised, and each state is allowed to delineate areas within which they can build power generating plants that will serve that electric region. this system will ensure efficient power generation and distribution, as well as fair billing.

for example, if you call ikeja one area, the power plant built there will naturally be one that can provide for the many industries there, and everyone knows that because the electricity source and admin is nearby, they can expect better billing and services, and can directly influence the provision of services to them.

if we're going to keep sending electricity from kainji dam to the furthermost parts of nigeria, wasting abt 40% of the electricity generated along the way, privatised or not, there's not point. i'm going to be paying N1000 to get only 60% value. assuming they can get those dead equipment to run.

This is 50 years of drama! na Indian go make electricity work just like the way dey make Ajaokuta steel complex work.

PHCN needs Nitel treatment. No less a measure will solve our power problem. Pure common sense. No rocket science.

Nigerians often ask the question that where is the 16 billion dollars Obasanjo spent on PHCN? Obasanjo never said he spent 16 Billion Dollars on PHCN. He said he spent it on the power sector. That is to say the money was spent between OBJ and the ministry of power. And the policy that established NEPA/PHCN states that they are to run on existing infrastructure. So it is not PHCN's duty to generate power: it is their duty to only buy power and sell to Nigerians .For God's sake why are Nigerians this daft ? If truly OBJ spent that much on PHCN and we know there is nothing to show for it, the next thing for EFCC or ICPC is to arrest PHCN officials and investigate. That is the normal practice. A good example is that of Tafa Balogun. So why has EFCC or ICPC not arrested any PHCN official ? Since we know that the federal government uses EFCC as a fighting weapon on its enemies and that has never happened to PHCN, government is fully responsible for electricity failure in Nigeria.
I am well informed about PHCN and I wish to ask Nigerians that who knows that PHCN does not generate power? Has anybody ever heard of the name TRANSISCOM ? That name sounds like they have a relationship with TRANSCORP. TRANSISCOM is the company that the Nigerian govt is using to generate power. They sell the power we use in Nigeria to a transmission company that eventually sells to PHCN before PHCN sells to me and you. So tell me !!! Is PHCN our problem or the Nigerian goverement ?
The government of Nigeria is not a serious one .Many of our so-called political leaders have ventured into electricity production.Many of them already have generating plants but have they ever been able to generate a nini-watt not to talk of mega watts. Because they have not been able to succeed to fully establish power business, they want to use their influence to snatch the already existing one that belongs to Nigerians. That is the extent of the greed of our leaders.
At this point in time , they want to increase electricity tariff . First , the current tariff is 5 naira but they claim that it is actually 13 naira but the govt subsides it to 5 naira. So, the govt has to withdraw the subsidy on electricity before they will be able to attract private investors. That is to say 13 naira + profit (can be any amount)= may be 25 or 30 naira. I leave the calculation to fellow Nigerians to do.
Now they say the reason for tariff increase is to attract private investors and yet,news paper report that the government is already transferring PHCN staffs to the intending private owners. How can the govt transfer PHCN to private companies that don't exist yet. Why do we allow ourselves to be fooled by the thiefs. Privatization of PHCN is not the answer to our problems. The solution to our problem is commitment to the lives of the people by the government. And if they still insist they want to sell , why don't they want to pay PHCN staffs their entitlement ? I rest my case.

what ever have begining precisely must have an end as this move will mount on very high tariff now that energy will rely on private sector.we do not only need this energy but need it in affordable manner. If this move is really the solution to our problem then it's welcome but my concern is that federal government should be careful for us not to have company MTN is better than in terms of billing.

WOW This seems too good to be called goodluck. nepa- phcn has held nigeria to ransom for 50 good years(may GOD forgive them oo). They should please fast foward this closure process. Good radiance to bad rubish!!

Lets get these criminals out of our power system, the monopoly is too much. They take our right (power) from us any time it pleases them, make it available to the industries because of the benefits (bribe), believing they cannot be challenged. It's time for them now to pay for all they have done to us. They must go ni sha, Go PHCN Go!

According to details made available by the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on Power, the headquarters’ workers have started moving out either to the Ministry of Power or to successor companies, while the functions of PHCN are being transferred to individual successor companies.
The eventual winding-up is, however, expected to be a legal or court-ordered formality, occurring when ongoing workers movements and transfer of assets and liabilities are concluded, before the end of April.

A report detailing measures to remove obstacles to private sector investment in Nigeria’s power sector was released yesterday by the PTF on Power and contains major decisions to be taken in this regard.

The report stated that the Power Grid of India, ESB International of Ireland and Manitoba Hydro of Canada have been invited to submit technical and financial proposals for the management contract of the Transmission Company of Nigeria.

A transaction adviser, CPSC Transcom, was appointed in December 2010 to assist the Bureau of Public Enterprises in undertaking the divestiture transactions. Details of the report signed by the Chairman, Communications Committee of the PTF on Power, Mr. Abimbola Agboluaje, also indicate that new tariffs for electricity will be announced by April 2011.

The Nigerian Electricity Liability Management Company (NELMCO) was also established in September 2010 to assume the liabilities of the PHCN successor companies, “thus neutralising operational and financial risks of investors and new managers of the companies such as the settlement of arrears of salaries, pensions and other benefits of current sector workers.”

On measures so far taken to end government’s monopoly and attract private investors, the PTF on Power recalled that adverts inviting companies to submit expressions of interest in taking up 51 per cent stake of the six generation and 11 distribution PHCN successor companies had been published in the media.

Agboluaje noted that interested companies were to submit expressions of interest by February 18, 2011, while short-listed companies would be invited to submit bids for the successor companies early in the second quarter of the year.

Winning bidders are to take over management of the companies by the end of second quarter of 2011.
Part of the report read: “The Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET) was incorporated in July 2010 to address the concern of investors in the generation sector about the credit worthiness of the distribution companies; the NBET will purchase electricity on behalf of the distribution companies until they establish a track record of paying for the power they deliver to consumers by efficiently metering electricity consumers and collecting bills. A World Bank Partial Risk Guarantee and a Federal Ministry of Finance Risk Guarantee to compensate against political and other risks and further give confidence to investors are being finalised.

The risk guarantees will also cover contracts to supply gas to power plants. Already, NBET has commenced negotiations with Nigerian Independent Power Plants to contract new generation capacity for the country, backed by these guarantees.”

On the contentious labour issues, it continued: “Arrears of monetisation benefits worth N57 billion has been paid to PHCN workers. The government also secured an additional N143 billion naira from the National Assembly as part of the supplementary budget of 2010 to compensate current PHCN workers for the severance of their current employment contracts with the government.

“A labour committee chaired by the Minister of Labour, Mr. Chukwuemeka Wogu, has been also established by the Presidential Action Committee on Power (PACP) to ensure that government honours all obligations to current PHCN workers. The Nigerian Electricity Liability Management Company (NELMCO) will be legally obliged to settle any outstanding liabilities after the PHCN successor companies come under the management of new private sector investors. It is worth noting that Investors cannot afford to bring in expatriate staff to replace Nigerians who best understand the system; they will rely on the technical experts currently engaged in the sector to run the companies.”

I Dont understand these Statements.

LOL, My dear Nation, when can we get it right? When?

Priviterzation of phcn is a gud innovative & a gud idea, provided it goes 2 d right bidder & d issue of uncirculate prepaid metter shld be re-addressed. Gvt had fail 2 give us stable electricity, let try privaterzatn & let see d result.

The only people I pity are the low level staff of PHCN aka NEPA because[b] let us not forget that they are human beings like anyone else and are equally affected by the epileptic power supply.[/b]