Bizman Urges FG To Deregulate Power Generation

The Federal Government has been urged to renew its commitment towards the privatisation of Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), in order to move the nation forward.

The Managing Director of Gillies Enterprises Nigeria Limited, Nwanta Ekwubiri who made the call in Port Harcourt on Wednesday, said the privatization of the power sector would thrust the economy on the path to growth and the way forward is to involve the private sector in the power generation sector in the country.

According to him “it is very important for government to adopt more public private partnership in a bid to improve the state of power generation in the country. We the Operators of  Private Sector (OPS) are ready to support the government in this direction to make sure that government achieves its goals.”

He noted that the cost of doing business in Nigeria compared with other countries of the world is very high because of non-availability of power supply, pointing out that there is need to institutionalise a special development vehicle that would drive investment and processes. He further observed that there is a growing consensus that investment in industries is essential to realising the vast but near squandered potentials.

Ekwubiri stated that government could drive investment by deploying resources to increase the level of infrastructure and have meaningful road rehabilitation programme in industrial areas, saying that plans by some businesses to relocate to neighbouring states and counties would become a thing of the past when the level of government presence is being felt positively.

He said that government must increase its spending on infrastructure so as to lower the cost of doing business in the country.