Business
FG To Sell 2 Power Stations- Minister
The Federal Government is still discussing with investors and stakeholders on the outright sale of the Omotosho and Olorounsogo Power Stations.
Mr Nuhu Wya, the Minister of State for Power, said this on Tuesday while speaking to journalists at the investors’ forum on the power sector organised by the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) in Lagos.
He said the power stations were built by contractors through external loans.
The minister said that government was able to bring its equity participation in the companies to 35 per cent and needed to repay the 65 per cent that was pending.
He said that the Federal Government could not redeem the debt because of low output in the stations.
Wya said the stations, which have installed capacity of over 600 megawatts each when in full operation, would add value to the country’s power generation and distribution.
Our correspondents reports that the Federal Government is holding discussions with a consortium from Nigeria and China with a view to selling the two power stations under a buy-out deal.
The minister also said that the plants had been shut down several times because the operating manuals were written in Chinese, adding that PHCN workers had been encountering difficulties in running the plants.
“The government thinks it will be better to sell them to the Chinese contractors that installed the machines,” he said.
Wya said that the plants were already undergoing rehabilitation in preparation for their eventual sale to the consortium.
“Government wants to ensure that the nation gets optimum performance from the two power stations; that is why it is looking at the option of outright sale of both plants,” he said.
He said government also planned to sell its 51 per cent stake in the distribution companies to investors and grant concession to private companies to run the hydroelectric power stations. The minister said that the transmission grid would still belong to the government but would be managed by private sector operators.
Our source reports that Nigeria is targeting 14,000 megawatts in power generation by 2013 and 40,000 megawatts by 2020 under the power sector reforms.
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