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Reps move to stop privatisation of 5 Niger Delta Power Company plants

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The House of Representatives on Thursday resolved to stop the privatisation of five power plants belonging to Niger Delta Power Holding Company in Nigeria (NDPHC).

This followed the adoption of a motion of urgent public importance by presented by Chairman of House Committee on Power, Magaji Aliyu, at the plenary in Abuja.

Aliyu, who led the debate on the matter, noted that the National Council on Privatisation and Board of Directors of NDPHC in collaboration with the Bureau of Public Enterprises (PBE) had resolved to sell the power plants.

He listed the five plants to include Calabar in Cross River State, Ihorbor in Edo State, Olorunsogo, Omotosho and Geregu in Kogi.

He stressed that the plants were constructed under the National Integrated Power Project (NIPP) with gross installed capacities at 150 conditions -SO6MW, 507MW, 634MW, 513MW and 754MW respectively.

The development, according to him, was to support the NDPHC in the efforts at stabilising Nigeria’s power sector.

The lawmaker said the Federal Government holds 47 percent shares in NDPHC while states and local governments have 53 percent.

READ ALSO: Nigerian govt approves projects to improve power supply

Aliyu said: “The privatisation Act which listed the enterprises to be privatised did not list NDPHC or any of its subsidiary generation companies.

“This was on the ground that it was not wholly owned by the Federal Government; yet, the BPE encouraged it to proceed without corresponding approval of all the shareholders to validate the process.

“If the current timing of the privatisation is approved by the prospective shareholders, it may not enable the greatest financial value.

“This is due to current commercial and technical constraints in the industry associated with poor state transmission, distribution capacity, underpayment and liquidity in the market.”

Consequently, the House urged the director-general of BPE to stop the planned sales of the plants until duly authorised by shareholders as stipulated by the Companies and Allied Matters Act 2020.

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