By Danlami Nasir Isah
The federal government has denied any plans or its willingness to sell the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) to any party.
The Minister of Power, Abubakar Aliyu, in a statement by his media aide, Isa Sanusi, urged the public to dismiss statements regarding “a non-existing plan to privatize the TCN”.
He was responding to the incident where electricity workers in TCN had embarked on strike action last month, citing what they called their “opposition to the privatization of the company” as one of the reasons behind their actions. The strike led to the shutdown of the national grid.
However, Aliyu insisted that the Federal Government has no plan to privatize the company, and that “these reports are untrue and are only mere misinformation aimed at spreading panic in the power sector, which is making progress towards ensuring that Nigerians enjoy uninterrupted power supply.”
The Minister further reiterated that “the Federal Government of Nigeria has no intent to sell or privatize the Transmission Company of Nigeria, and no one in the FGN has made a statement of an intent to sell TCN.”
He insisted that claims in the media that TCN, which is the only wholly government owned operator in Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry, NESI, would be sold in the next few months were false.
The Minister explained that TCN “is a centerpiece in the Federal Government of Nigeria’s efforts to rejuvenate the power sector. Therefore, the Ministry of Power, working with key stakeholders is continuing to evaluate, assess and upgrade TCN to make it more efficient and transparent.
“And as part of the repositioning of TCN, job opportunities are being created, as with the recently concluded ramp up of employment, contrary to claims that there is a plan for a mass disengagement of staff at TCN.”
According to him, the organization has also been carrying out sustained capacity building by training and retraining of staff across all cadres for efficiency and service delivery.
Engr. Aliyu pointed out that transmission is a vital segment of the electricity value chain that constantly needs significant investment, stressing that as is the best practice across the world, the government of Nigeria maintains the transmission segment of the power value chain even when other segments have been privatized.
He assured that, currently, the federal government is investing and supporting efforts to make TCN a world-class transmission service provider.