The federal government has threatened to sanction power generating, transmission and distribution companies that fail to deliver electricity supply.
The minister of power, Mr. Abubakar Aliyu who disclosed this at a media briefing in Abuja said the penalties are contained in the newly agreed contracts with the power companies.
Although he did not disclose the type of sanctions, the minister said penalties would be imposed as part of measures to boost power supply in the country.
Aliyu said the power operators including GENCOs, TCN and DisCos signed contracts with the government on Tuesday, outlining specific amounts of electricity they will be offering customers.
He said the agreement was signed to demonstrate the federal government’s recent assurance that power supply will improve from this month (July).
“We signed reactivated contracts with the operators, GENCOs, TCN and the distributors. This means if you have a firm commitment from whoever generates what he says he is going to give, he must give otherwise there will be a penalty and he must not give otherwise, there will be a penalty,” he said.
He said the operations will be overseen by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to ensure all parties keep to the agreement.
“That was why the chairman of Nigeria electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), mentioned something about July 1, 2022, Nigeria will start to enjoy electricity. This is a process towards that,” Aliyu added.
The minister also said insecurity was also a problem affecting the sector’s progress.
“Like vandalism around oil pipelines which affects gas and once you don’t get gas to power, you don’t get the megawatts, once there is no power coming from the generators, you know what that means,” he said.
Nevertheless, he said efforts were being made to ensure that issues are addressed.
“We are working round the clock to ensure that we nip everything in the bud. For instance, this Maiduguri issue that you have particularly mentioned,” he said.
He said the government has been able to take back electricity to Maiduguri, Borno State, where the jihadist group Boko Haram attacked installations.
“Yes, we are facing a lot of security challenges in this country. We have challenges around our installations in Kaduna.
“We have been battling with one of our lines snapping towards Shiroro, we have two lines coming from there. One, we cannot even go there to inspect and see what is wrong because of the security challenges,” he added.
He said there are issues around right of ways but some of them have been pulled down while others are still lingering.
Speaking on the government’s pact with Siemens, he said officials had been invited for the factory-testing of the 10 Mobitra transformers in Italy ahead of commencement of delivery in September 2022.
