President Goodluck Jonathan on Thursday laid out plans to privatise most of the country’s power sector, with corruption and mismanagement leading to daily outages in the oil-rich nation.
“We need a revolution in the power sector,” Jonathan said in what was touted as a major speech in the country’s economic capital Lagos, attended by high-profile politicians, business people and diplomats.
He said the bid to end electricity woes in the country of 150 million people — Africa’s most populous nation — required “productively engaging the private sector as partners in this journey of national transformation.”
The plans come ahead of presidential, legislative and state elections expected in January.
Jonathan, who came to power following the death of president Umaru Yar’Adua in May, has not declared his candidacy and continues to face disagreement within his People’s Democratic Party over whether he should represent them.
According to the plans spelled out Thursday, his government will privatise electricity generation and distribution in the country as well as boost natural gas availability to fire new plants.
The government would continue to own the national grid, though it would be privately managed. Earlier this month, Jonathan pledged a new 3.5-billion-dollar electricity grid to be built in four years.
Nigeria’s Central Bank has announced measures to help in electricity reform, setting up a 300 billion naira (1.6 billion euro, two billion dollar) fund to assist private investments in the power and aviation sectors.
Jonathan’s speech came a day after electricity workers went on strike over wages, completely cutting off power for those without generators. The strike was suspended on Thursday.
He sought to address electricity workers’ concerns, saying money was being set aside to fulfill wage promises as well as to finance severance packages and pensions when privatisation takes effect.
Nigeria is one of the world’s largest oil exporters, but has long been held back by corruption and the government has been unable to provide basic services, including electricity.
Decrepit infrastructure has contributed to the west African country’s electricity woes, and businesses and residents who can afford them use generators much of the time to power their offices and homes.