The Acting Director-General, Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Dr Vincent Akpotaire, has assured power companies that the Federal Government is working to ensure that debts owed by it’s agencies are paid.
This is contained in a statement by the Head, Public Communications, Mr Alex Okoh, in Abuja on Wednesday.
Akpotaire said this during the commencement of the bureau’s periodic post privatisation monitoring exercise at the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC) in Ibadan.
He assured them that the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, and the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola, were working to ensure that Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) pay up.
He enjoined the power companies to work to improve power efficiency in view of the effort the government was making to get power to the people and also make them pay for it.
Akpotaire tasked owners of the successor companies of the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) to make long-term investments to improve their plants’ network and infrastructure.
He said that they could still make an impact in spite of the seeming unfavourable operating environment in the country.
He enjoined the investors to approach local and international funding sources to improve on their operations such that when the environment stabilises they would not be caught unawares.
Akpotaire reminded distribution companies in the country that they won the bid for their respective companies based on the Aggregate Technical Commercial and Collection (ATC and C) they submitted.
He noted that they could only achieve that if they consciously expand and improve their network operation.
“If the network is not improved and metering not aggressively pursued, you cannot reduce technical and collection losses.”
Akpotaire commended the impressive investments and progress the IBEDC had made, especially with the embedded generation project in collaboration with British America Tobacco (BAT).
He commended the company for its effort at upgrading facilities, and urged the management to make conscious efforts to meet, if not exceed the agreed Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
He tasked them on the need to have a team of professional staff to drive the new technology they had deployed in information technology and other areas.