The Nigeria Consumer Protection Network (NCPN) has kicked against the proposed sale of the five National Integrated Power Projects (NIPP) assets by the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE).
The BPE had recently pre-qualified 16 firms for the privatisation of the five NIPPs, namely, Geregu, Omotosho, Olorunsogo, Calabar and Benin-Ihovbor.
However, NCPN in a statement, said the proposed sale poses a national security risk.
President of the organisation, Kola Olubiyo, in the statement, said the planned disposal of the plants under the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC), smacked of national assets stripping at a time the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration was winding down.
He expressed concern that the pre-qualified forms hardly have any experience in the business of power generation.
“…during the COVID-19 pandemic when the private Generation Companies (Gencos) ramped down electricity generation due to low revenue returns, the NIPPs being public assets, provided Nigeria with the much-needed energy security and its attendant socio-economic stability.
“They increased power supply to avoid economic and administrative shut down in the country.
“The private firms in the power sector so far have not fared better than the NDPHC Gencos which have its gas obligations, gas pipeline assets, contributed to both transmission and distribution networks nationwide,” the group argued.
Olubiyo said what the BPE and any designated agency of government should be thinking of at the moment is how to optimise the NIPP/NDPHC Gencos so that Nigerians can make the best use of this power sector intervention, as that was what they were designed for.
It argued that selling off the five NIPP plants may not guarantee their optimal performance as the new investors will have to begin a fresh journey of having some levels of Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) and Vesting Contracts with the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading PLC (NBET).
However, at the moment, it maintained that the NDPHC has some already signed bilateral contracts for a “Take or Pay” deal for gas supply agreement for some of the Gencos which can come handy.
Olubiyo, a member of the National Technical Investigative Panel on Power System Collapses/System Stability and Reliability and Presidential Ad-hoc Committee on Review of Electricity Tariff in Nigeria, argued that if at any point other Gencos shut down operations because of legacy debts allegedly owed them, the NIPPS could act as a buffer.
