Pay GenCos to avoid power sector collapse, Elumelu tells FG

Transcorp Group chairman Tony Elumelu has warned that the nation’s electrical energy provide system will collapse if the federal authorities fails to urgently pay money owed owed to energy technology firms and speed up long-delayed sector reforms.

Talking Wednesday in Abuja on the nineteenth Annual Basic Assembly of Transnational Company Plc (Transcorp), Mr Elumelu stated his firm alone is owed over N600 billion — roughly $400 million — for electrical energy already generated and provided to the nationwide grid.

“As of date, our federal authorities owes your organization over N600 billion. That’s $400 million,” Mr Elumelu stated to the shareholders. “A lot as we, as patriotic Nigerian buyers, are dedicated to supporting the hassle of the federal authorities dealing with the financial system, we’ve one other excruciating burden of subsidising the sector as producers who don’t receives a commission for the electrical energy we generate.”

“We put it on the grid, and it’s consumed on the grid,” he added. “This, you’ll ask, is completely not sustainable. It requires pressing consideration.”

Mr Elumelu’s warning comes as Nigeria continues to grapple with energy outages, unstable grid efficiency and power liquidity shortfalls within the electrical energy market, over a decade after the nation privatised technology and distribution property in hopes of attracting funding and bettering provide.

He acknowledged that President Bola Tinubu’s administration had taken some steps to reform the sector, together with efforts to clear GenCo money owed, increase metering beneath the Presidential Metering Initiative (PMI), and separate Unbiased System Operations from Transmission System Operations. Nonetheless, he expressed concern that implementation has been gradual and uncoordinated.

“Whereas the intention behind this initiative is excellent, these intentions can solely be achieved via ruthless, result-oriented and well timed execution earlier than this sector collapses in our very lives,” Mr Elumelu stated.

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“Let me subsequently use this chance of our AGM to name on all these concerned in executing our president’s directives to please prioritise this important nationwide process instantly.”

He referred to as on the federal government to finish debt reimbursement processes initiated late final yr and fast-track supply of meters nationwide.

Mr Elumelu additionally urged stronger funding in gasoline infrastructure, warning that gasoline provide constraints proceed to hinder energy technology throughout the nation. He pointed to the continued OB3 pipeline venture, designed to hyperlink the japanese and western gasoline networks, as a important intervention that must be accomplished.

“Nigerians want enchancment in entry to electrical energy,” he stated. “The Transcorp Group alone is owed over $400 million. We wish this paid in order that we may also help actualise the president’s imaginative and prescient for bettering electrical energy provide to Nigeria.”

Regardless of these challenges, the chairman stated Transcorp’s diversified companies proceed to carry out strongly. He cited development throughout Transcorp Motels, Transcorp Energy (managed by Abuja Electrical energy Distribution Firm), and Transcorp Power, noting that the group’s mixed listed market capitalisation has crossed N4.5 trillion from lower than N20bn in 2011 when his group took over the corporate.

Unlisted property, akin to AEDC and Transcorp Power’s OPL 2SL, are anticipated to spice up the group’s worth even additional.