27022020 - Insurgency: Depressed soldier shoots 7, kills self

20 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2020
From Left-Right: Engr. Yusuf Usman, Chief Operating Officer, Gas & Power, NNPC, Engr. Bank Anthony
Okoroafor, Chairman, Petroleum Technology Assopciation of Nigeria(PETAN) and Engr. Simbi
Wabote, Executive Secretary, Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board at the 4th Sub-
Saharan Africa International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (SAIPEC) in Lagos.
DISCOs put tariff shortfall, liability
at N1.728trn, N81bn
•Govt agencies owe N100bn
By Chris Ochayi
THE Electricity Distribu
tion Companies,
DisCos, has put the tariff
shortfall, occasioned by the
Nigerian Electricity Regulatory
Commission, NERC,
Minor Review Order at
N1.728 trillion. It also puts
liability to Nigerian Electricity
Supply Industry, NESI,
at N81 billion.
In a statement issued in
Abuja, yesterday, executive
director, Research and Advocacy,
Association of Nigerian
Electricity Distributors,
ANED, Mr. Sunday
Oduntan, said: “NERC’s
December 2019 Minor Review
Order specifies federal
government debt to the
DisCos (correspondingly,
the rest of the NESI value
chain), due to tariff shortfalls,
of N1.728 trillion.
DISCOs liability to NESI,
due to market shortfalls, is
N81 billion.”
Oduntan, who also attributed
the poor financial
situation of the DISCOs to
huge indebtedness of consumers,
stated: “Significantly,
government Ministries,
Departments and
Agencies (MDA) owe the
DisCos in excess of N100
billion, for energy consumed
but not paid for – a
federal government commitment,
yet again, unmet
under the privatisation
agreement and MYTO-
2015.
“Under the Nigerian Electricity
Market Stabilization
Fund (NEMSF) N210 billion
initiative, of the N189.1
billion that has been disbursed,
the DisCos have
only received N49.89 billion
or 26.3 per cent. Impor-
GDP: Manufacturers doubt sustained
growth •Harps tech application for increased output
By Yinka Kolawole &
Naomi Uzor
Against the backdrop of
the 2.7 percent Gross
Domestic Product (GDP)
growth reported for 2019 by
the National Bureau of Statistics
(NBS), the Manufacturers
Association of Nigeria
(MAN) has cast doubts
on the sustainability of the
growth due to prevailing
adverse operating environment.
The Association is also calling
on industry operators to
leverage technology to ramp
up output and help GDP
growth.
President, MAN, Engr.
Mansur Ahmed, who stated
these yesterday in the
Association’s preliminary
position on the current GDP
report, said that the real
GDP of 2.27 percent in 2019
compared with 1.91% of
2018 undoubtedly revealed
a promising but cautious trajectory
of improving economic
performance.
He stated: “This is encouraging,
especially because it
obviously surpassed the
2.1% projections of IMF
apparently due to the usual
heavy transactional seasonality
activities. It is however
doubtful that this would be
sustained in the coming
quarters because of the prevailing
unfriendly operating
environment.
“This doubt would be
overcome if government
ensures that its Ease of Doing
Business reforms translates
to reduction in the cost
of doing business thereby
resulting in a real GDP
growth that may again surpass
the 2.0% projection for
2020.”
Leveraging tech
Meanwhile, the MAN
President has called on Nigerians
to start using technology
to produce own
food, products and other
indigenous innovations.
He said this has become
imperative so the country
will not be perpetually dependent
on developed
countries.
Ahmed made the call in a
media parley on the forthcoming
5th Edition of the
Nigeria Manufacturing and
Equipment Expo (NME)
and 6th Edition of the Nigerian
Raw Materials Expo
(NIRAM) of the Raw Materials
Research and Development
Council (RMRDC)
with the theme, “The Fourth
Industrial Revolution and
the Nigerian Manufacturing
sector”.
tantly, this is money owed
to the DisCos by the consumers,
due to the non-cost
reflective tariff of MYTO 2.0
and the government’s failure
to inject the associated
N100 billion in subsidies, a
commitment under the
privatisation agreements.”
He added: “The rest of the
NEMSF disbursement of
N139.21 or 73.7 per cent is
comprised of the Power
Holding Company of Nigeria
(PHCN)’s legacy gas
and energy supply liabilities
that should have resided
with the Nigerian
Electricity Liability Management
Company
(NELMCO).
“Unfortunately, these liabilities
now constitute an
encumbrance on the
DisCos’ financial books, limiting
or precluding their ability
to access the financing that
is critical for capital investment
and injection of efficiency
in the distribution of
electricity - another violation
of a privatisation commitment
which required that the
DisCos have debt-free financial
books that would enable
them access debt funding for
their operations.”
Apparently reacting to comments
credited to the Minister
of Power, Engr. Saleh
Mamman, that the Federal
Government would not continue
to subsidise the power
sector, Oduntan, added:
“While we note that there has
since been a retraction by the
Ministry of Power, it is regrettable
that the stated proposal
further promotes a perception
that the Nigerian government
does not respect sanctity
of contract, a requirement
for any investment in the
country – particularly, for the
cheap foreign capital that is
required for the massive capital
expenditure needs of
NESI.
Stakeholders react as
NERC caps estimated bills
By Udeme Akpan,
Sebastine Obasi & Chris
Ochayi
At the backdrop of
the positive public
response to the restrictions
on estimated billing
in the nation’s electricity
services, stakeholders
have cast doubts over the
implementation of the
new policy.
The Nigerian Electricity
Regulatory Commission,
NERC, this week,
capped the estimated
bills that distribution
companies, DISCOs can
charge unmetered consumers,
while ordering
them to provide meters
to all on or before April
30, 2020.
In a telephone interview
with Vanguard,
the National Secretary,
Nigeria Electricity Consumers
Advocacy Network,
NECAN, Uket
Obonga, said: “NERC
has the power to rollout
out orders. As shown in
the past, it lacks the capacity
to enforce compliance.
With a workforce of
about 200 personnel and
lack of offices outside
Abuja, it has been impossible
for NERC to enforce
many of its orders.”
Similarly, Executive
Director, Spaces for
Change, Victoria Ibezim-
Ohaeri, said: “I am opposed
to the planned increase
in electricity tariff
because it would impact
very negatively on many
people, especially poor
Nigerians.
“Instead of increasing
the electricity tariff, it
would make sense for the
government to shift from
subsidising fuel, which
the Petroleum Products
Pricing and Regulatory
Commission, PPPRA,
said would cost N750 billion
in 2020 to subsidise
electricity. This is important
as power concerns
all persons, including
poor rural dwellers.”
Directive
However, in its directive,
NERC stated:
“DISCOs are required to
meter customers in accordance
with requisite
standards of performance.
The legacy situation
at acquisition of
mandatory stake in the
distribution of assets
from government was
that the majority of customers
were unmetered
and there has been little
change in the situation as
the deployment of meters
by DISCOs has been outpaced
by the growth in
customer numbers in the
Nigerian Electricity Supply
Industry, NESI.”
POWER: We need complete
privatization not reversal
— Agusto
•Oil not drying up for Nigeria – Etiebet
By Ediri Ejoh & Sharon
Obiakor
Contrary to plans by
the government to revoke
the licences of the
privatized power sector
former Director General,
Budget Office of the Federation,
Mr. Olabode
Agusto, has said there
was need for a complete
privatization instead of reversal.
This came as he called
for more investment in infrastructure
to include
electricity, railway and
road to grow the
country’s economy.
Agusto, who is the Director,
Agusto & Co. Ltd,
made this call at the 17th
Annual Aret Adams Memorial
Lecture held in
Lagos.
According to him, “The
federal government
should not reverse the
privatization going on in
the power sector. They
should not reverse it no
matter how tempted they
are.
“I strongly believe that
the government should go
ahead and complete the
privatization scheme because
that’s where the
problem is. Also, they
should focus on three key
areas to include gas, tariff
and the national grid.
“With respect to that, the
federal government
should stop regulating the
price of gas. You should understand
the sole aim is for
people to access electricity.
“However, certain gas
prices are not on economic
levels, the owners of the
gas are not fully in gas infrastructure
and the gas
fire plants that we have
were built as far back as
when I was a director of
budget.
“The government should
work with the industry operators
to look at the tariff
and they have two principal
objectives in mind, in
setting the tariff. Objective
one is that an efficient
player in the industry must
be able to cover its cost of
capital and you must subsidize
poor households.”
Also speaking, Former
minister of Petroleum, Mineral
resources, Chief Don
Etiebet, argued that Nigeria
was yet to discover its
full oil potential as oil
would not go out anytime
soon.