High Chief (Barr.) Sunday Olurotimi Oduntan is a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.The Asiwaju Baamofin of Egbaland is the current Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer of ANED (Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors) and the official Spokesman of all the 11 Electricity Distribution Companies in Nigeria. He was head hunted from the United Kingdom in 2013 to join the Nigeria's electricity sector.
In this encounter with, THE BUSINESS PACKAGE, he spoke extensively about the Nigeria power sector; why investors are slow in investing in the nation’s power sector, the problem of grid collapse,the reform embarked upon by the President Tinubu- led administration and sundry issues. Excerpts.
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Q: Why investors are slow in investing in the electricity sector after the signing of Electricity Act, 2023?
A: The signing into law of the Electricity Act 2023 has empowered government at all levels to get involved in the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity. As a result of this, states have started enacting their own laws that will be specific and peculiar to their states and hopefully begin to search for investors. But, let me quickly talk about investors. For you to have investors in any country, enabling environment must be provided.
If you want investors to come into the power sector, for instance, that investor must have an assurance of a number of things. One is respect for the sanctity of contract. This means that once I sign the contract with your government, the contract must be obeyed and respected.
Secondly, security must be provided; that's part of enabling environment. If an investor does not feel secured, he won't come.
Then, the issue of corruption. You must fight corruption to the ground. An investor that is trying to pay tax and they are asking him to bring bribe, an investor that is trying to do his job, and you are harassing him through multiple taxes. All those multiple taxation is a sign of an unserious nation.
Every investor wants a return on investment That is to say, if I put an amount of money on this business, would I be able to recover my cost? Cost recovery is very important. How do they recover their cost? They can recover their cost, if the product is sold at the appropriate price. The product has to be sold at a cost that will reflect the cost of production. But, in a case where you have illegal connections, how can they recover their money? Illegal connection of electricity is very rampant in Nigeria; the rich people do it; the poor do it and you want an investor to come.
The truth is that, no investor will come into any environment where he is not sure he can recover his cost. So, when an Act is signed into law, that is just the beginning of the process. The next stage is implementation.
Q: The Siemens Project.
A: Right now, we have what we call the Siemens project that is going on. Siemens is an equipment manufacturing company from Germany. They started from the Buhari's time and President Tinubu continued it. People are abusing President Buhari for instance, but they will not talk about the good things that happened under his administration. They have brought in a lot of equipments that has enhanced power supply. Of course, this has led to improvement in electricity in different parts of the country. So electricity has improved.
Q: How Nigeria was able to attract investors into the telecommunication sector?
A: Oh ! Telecom technology is different from the power sector. Telecom is a technology that works with the air.
Q: How to curb electricity theft in Nigeria?
A: There is a need for mobile courts to try electricity related offences all over the States.
Q; States that have shown commitment to implement the Electricity , 2023.
A: So far many states have shown commitment. We have states like, Enugu, Lagos,Ekiti, Kogi, Oyo, Edo and so on. Enugu is the first state to complete the enactment of their law. They have set up their own regulatory authority. So, they can regulate power in partnership with the DISCOS and other players and investors.
So, as long as people are ready to pay for power and they desist from stealing energy, the improvement in the power sector will continue.
Q: With power sector improvement, is the economy going to be on the path of recovery?
A: Anywhere there is electricity, industry will thrive. Also, there will be employment generation. Let me tell you,more than half of those who ride okada today are artisans in their own rights. So, once there is electricity, there will be more economic activities.
Q: On President Tinubu's Economic Reform
The current reforms embarked upon by President Tinubu is very important. You can see that President Tinubu is trying to push a tax reform So, talking about Tinubu’s administration and the tax reform, I think it is a step in the right direction.
Q: On importation of goods..
A: We are importing fuel for instance because our infrastructure are old and we are not building new ones. It is not about the petroleum sector alone, even in the power sector , 80 per cent of the equipment we use in the power sector are imported. Nigeria is not producing any component. Even, meters are not produced 100 per cent in the country. The meter manufacturers still have to import some computer chips which are not produced in Nigeria.
Q: On incessant grid collapse.
The grid is epileptic because the equipment is very old. The grid is owned 100 per cent by the government. There was a grid collapse that was cause by the explosion of a transformer in Jebba recently. That transformer was 47 year old. Part of the problem is also as a result of vandalism by bandits. Those bandits didn't come from heaven, they live among us.
The security agencies need to step up their games in their efforts to combat banditry and terrorism. I acknowledge that they are trying so much.
End.
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