Minister of Trade and Investment Mr-Olusegun AgangaThe fourth WorldStage National Electricity Power Conference 2014 is set to look critically into the challenges of post-privatization in power sector, bearing in mind the huge N750 Billion some banks in Nigeria have invested in the sector.
This is coming against the background that as much as about 30 million households in Nigeria are still without access to electricity at the dawn of a new era in Nigeria’s liberalized electricity power sector. According to the President/Chief Executive Officer of the World Stage Limited, Segun Adeleye, organizer of the conference, in a statement today, the conference, will hold at the Lagoon Restaurant, Ozumba Mbadiwe Street, Victoria Island, Lagos, between September 25 and 26. It will bring the policy makers and the private sector together to review the new development in electricity power sector, address new challenges, deliberate on critical issues and chart the way forward for the realization of privatization objectives.
Adeleye said that the conference will attract participants from the Presidency, Ministry Power, Ministry of Finance, NERC, National Assembly, BPE, GENCOs, DISCOs, NIPP, IPPs, State Governments with IPPs, Oil and Gas Firms, Banks, Insurance Firms, Local and Foreign Investors, Media and Other Relevant Stakeholders.
He said that the conference will feature presentations from top government officials, industry experts and panel discussions on, Challenges of Electricity Generation Post Privatization; Transmission and Distribution Challenges; Alternative Energy Sources/ Energy Conservation; and State Governments’ Promoted IPPs.
“The challenges that surfaced with the new dispensation are numerous but not un-surmountable.”
He listed the challenges to include the rising activities of vandals who burst gas pipelines and other power transmission equipment; high level of power theft and by–passing metering; gas supply limitation; revenue collection; transmission wheeling capacity; funding model for transmission; expected declaration of Transition Electricity Market; lack of accurate data on power demand of the entire country; non-alignment of the entire value chain of power generation, transmission and distribution; security of investment; right pricing and efficient usage of available electricity; paucity of funding transmission and aging 132KV lines.
“As Nigerian banks invested about N750 billion in the power sector since its privatization, it’s imperative that the security of this huge exposure rests squarely on every efforts to ensure the success of the privatization process,” he said.
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