TCN recovers 693 power equipment containers abandoned at ports for 15 years

The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) said it had recovered no fewer than 693 containers of power equipment abandoned at ports due to tariff in the last 15 years.

The Managing Director of the company, Usman Mohammed, made this disclosure in Lagos on Friday.

Mohammed said even though some of the power equipment had been auctioned by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), the TCN would go after the auctioneers to recover the containers.

“TCN still has over 200 other containers auctioned by the Customs outside the ports,’’ he said.

“We were able to recover 693 containers as of last week, out of a total of 800 containers that have been in the ports. Some of these containers have been there for 15 years.

“Others have been auctioned and we had to trace the auctioneers to get the containers.

“The government is supporting us. And with the same way they are supporting us, I know that as government has beamed its searchlight on the distribution companies, they are going to solve the problems with power distribution,” he said.

The TCN boss said the government was ready to resolve the problems in the distribution arm of the power sector.

According to him, the government had approved that the TCN anchor the N72 billion the federal government planned to invest in the 11 electricity distribution companies in Nigeria.

He said that the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola got the approval for the TCN to manage the N72 billion planned investment in the electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos).

Read also: Nigerian govt makes N1.4tn from surplus returned by MDAs

There has been controversy surrounding the power sector in the country, particularly between the Power Minister and the 11 DisCos under the Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED), over alleged poor performance of the power firms.

On Tuesday, the matter took a new dimension when the investors in the DisCos threatened to quit business and divest their assets in the sector at discounted rates.

The DisCos had bought the assets of the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria to oversee the distribution of power to consumers in the country, this followed the privatization of the power sector in 2013 with the Federal Government owing some percentage stake in the business.

The taking over of the sector by the private investors seemed not to have positively impacted on the supply of power in the country despite increased tariff being levied on consumers, a development which has left dissatisfied Nigerians complaining without solution.

This, however, led to the disagreement between Fashola and the power firms, which further prompted the approval for the TCN to manage the investment in the DisCos.

 

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