Minister for Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola urged to hit the ground running as Discos set agenda for power sector.

The Minister for Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, has been urged to hit the ground running by holistically investigating the remote and immediate causes of epileptic power supply in Nigeria, with a view to resolving them.

The President of Good Governance Initiative (GGI) and Managing Director, Blue Diamond Logistics China, Mr. Festus Mbisiogu noted that poor power supply was one of the factors hindering rapid industrialisation and the growth of small-scale enterprises in the country.

Mbisiogu added that there was an urgent need to pay more attention to the sector, as the absence of constant electricity supply is seriously inhibiting the ability of Nigeria to attract foreign industries that heavily depend on electricity.

This comes just as the distribution companies have called upon the minister of power "Fashola" to focus on privatizing the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), if he is to make any headway on tackling the perennially weak public power supply in the country.

The Discos say the weakness of the grid and the power tussle within TCN, especially the alleged meddling by the Ministry of Power officials, had further dimmed the hope of a vibrant transmission network for the country. These were among the issues raised by the Director of Research and Advocacy for the Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED), Sunday Olurotimi Oduntan, in a recent interview with The Guardian.

He also called attention to the need for the minister to lead the campaign for a cost reflective tariff and also for the Federal Government to allow the Discos access to funds from the Sovereign Wealth Fund to enable them step up action on the massive procurement of meters and transformers, network renewals and expansion.

VANGUARD.

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