Nigeria plans to announce new power tariffs by April under a state plan to attract investors to the industry, a top official said.
The task force has started consultations to determine the level of tariffs that will enable investors to recover costs, Abimbola Agboluaje, chairman of the communications committee of the presidential task force on power, said in an e-mailed statement today.
The government plans to sell 11 distribution companies created out of Power Holding Co. of Nigeria, the state-owned utility, and allow private companies to set up power plants using natural gas, hydro-electric dams and coal-powered stations, President Goodluck Jonathan said in August.
“By mid-2011, an appreciable proportion of generating and distribution capacity would have been transferred to private sector hands, new private generating capacity would have been fully contracted and under procurement,” Agboluaje said
Blackouts are a daily occurrence in Nigeria, where demand for electricity is almost double the current average supply of 3,000 megawatts. The West African nation is the continent’s most populous, with 140 million people. The government wants to boost generation to more than 14,000 megawatts by 2013, Barth Nnaji, the president’s adviser on power, said on Aug. 17.