[size=14pt]PHCN: FG to release privatisation timetable soon[/size] 
By Martin Ayankola   
Tuesday, 3 Aug 2010   

THE Federal Government will soon release the timetable for the privatisation of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria‘s successor companies.

A source close to the Presidential Task Force on Power told our correspondent on Monday that the process of liberalising the successor companies ”won‘t be a-one-size-fits-all approach.”

He said, ”We are going to take the companies one by one and determine which system is good for each of them.

”The liberalisation will be done across the value chain, from fuel supply to the power stations, to supply of electricity to the customers.”

According to the source, the government ”has the will to implement the Electric Power Sector Reform Act.”

The 18 PHCN successor companies include Kainji Hydro Electric Plc, Shiroro Hydro Electric Plc, Jebba Hydro Electric Plc, Egbin Power Plc, Afam Power Plc, Transmission Company of Nigeria, Abuja Electricity Distribution Plc, Yola Electricity Distribution Plc, Ikeja Electricity Distribution Plc and Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Plc.

Others are Kaduna Electricity Distribution Plc, Enugu Electricity Distribution Plc, Benin Electricity Distribution Plc, Ibadan Electricity Distribution Plc, Eko Electricity Distribution Plc, Kano Electricity Distribution Plc, Sapele Power Plc and Delta Power Plc.

The EPSR was enacted on March 11, 2005 and the memorandum attached to the law says, ”The Act provides for the formation of companies to take over the functions, assets, liabilities and staff of NEPA; develop competitive electricity markets; establish the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission; provide for the licensing and regulation of the generation, transmission, distribution and supply of electricity; enforce such matters as performance standards, consumer rights and obligations and provide for the determination of tariffs.”

Five years after the Act was passed, the power sector has still not been fully liberalised and the PHCN, which was supposed to be a holding company that should operate just for a while, still exists, contrary to the provisions of the law.

According to the law, ”The National Council on Privatisation shall, not later than six months after the coming into force of this Act, take such steps as are necessary, under the Companies and Allied Matters Act, to incorporate a company, limited by shares, which shall be the initial holding company for the assets and liabilities of the authority.”

The Act states,”The shares of the shareholding company on its incorporation shall be held by the Ministry of Finance Incorporated and the Bureau of Public Enterprises, in the name and on behalf of the Federal Government of Nigeria.”

It further adds, ”The National Council on Privatisation shall not later than eight months after the formation of the initial holding company, under section 1 of this Act, take such steps as are necessary under the Companies and Allied Matters Act to incorporate such additional companies limited by shares, as the NCP may deem appropriate, which shall be successor companies.”

The law further states that the NCP “shall not later than one year from the initial transfer date, by an order, require the initial holding company to transfer employees, assets, liabilities, rights and obligations of the initial holding company to a successor company, as specified in the order.”

However, the law says the NCP can at any time it deems appropriate, begin the process of privatisation of the successor companies.

http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art201008034313662