President Muhammadu Buhari has said the tariff shortfalls in the power sector being borne by the Federal Government are no longer sustainable.
Buhari said this on Thursday at the inauguration of Eko Electricity Distribution Company’s Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition-Distribution Management System Centre in Lagos.
He said the SCADA system would help EKEDC monitor and respond more quickly to faults and reduce outage durations, thereby improving the quality of service to customers.
Represented by the Minister of Power, Mr Sale Mamman, the President said his regime remained committed to addressing the liquidity challenges that were adversely affecting the power sector’s viability.
“We have noted with grave concern the increased fiscal burden on the Federal Government occasioned by the tariff shortfalls in the sector which are no longer sustainable,” he said.
He said the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Power Assistance Fund targeted at supporting tariff shortfalls could no longer be extended and must be phased out to promote the sector’s financial independence.
Buhari said, “We are also aware that these tariff shortfalls sit on Discos’ books and impair their ability to raise capital and invest.
“The Federal Government is working assiduously to address these financial and fiscal challenges through various programmes such as the National Mass Metering Programme, the Siemens AG Power Project and the World Bank Distribution Sector Recovery Programme, etc.”
He stressed the need to ensure an alignment of capacity and attraction of investments across the generation, transmission and distribution components of the power sector’s value chain.
The President said the Federal Government, through the Ministry of Power, had inaugurated several projects to address challenges of the critical power infrastructure in the country.
The Chairman, Board of Directors, EKEDC, Mr Charles Momoh, described the SCADA project as an integral part of Disco’s strategic business plan towards addressing the distribution challenges within five years of the power sector’s privatisation.