One of Nigeria’s leading Industrialists and Chairman, Blue Diamond Logistics, Mr. Festus Mbisiogu, has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to use opportunity of his scheduled visit to China and fully engage Chinese investors in Nigeria’s Power Sector.
President Buhari is one of the African leaders expected to attend the Forum on China Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Summit will hold in Beijing, China this month.
FOCAC is a summit where Chinese and African leaders meet to discuss the policy of China-Africa friendly relationships as well as seek new ways of implementing the blueprint of China-Africa cooperation.
In a statenent made available to the media, Mbisiogu said the recent complaints by Distribution Companies, DISCOs, in Nigeria
operating at huge losses and the revelation by the Bureau of Public Enterprises, BPE, that most of the DISCOs were technically insolvent, are a warning that something drastic and proactive needs to be done in that sector.
He said: “It is obvious that these firms are operating below optimal level. They are overehelmed by the challenges in the sector and they have no solution to these problems.
“That have fallen shot both in price structure and liquidity and that is why we are still yet to obtain a reasonable level in power distribution. Typical of everything Nigeria, the Federal Government has allowed the DISCOs to take advantage of everyone and many Nigerians are paying for the servces they do not enjoy.
“Besides epileptic and poor services, outrageous billings and lack of committment to the provision of meters for electricity consumers to ensure fair billing have been the hallmark of these DISCOS.
“How long are we going to continue to spoon-fed these firms from our national treasury without any corresponding positive effects,” Mbisiogu querried.
He reiterated his call on the Federal Government to review the contract with the local investors ad well as declare a state of emergency on the power sector.
He said: “At no other is it timely and more appropiate than now for the government of President Buhari to declare a stsre of emergency on power. A recent statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics says 7.6 million Nigerians lost tgeir jobs from Jnsuary to June 2018. This is traceable to industries closing down everday because of unsteady power supply. How long would this continue? If this trend is not halted now, Nigeria should forget whatever claims we are making for industrialization.”
Mbisiogu recalled that there has been an attempt by Nigeria to involve Chinese investors in the the power sector in the past especially during President Buhari’s last visit to China, insisting that more should be done.
” I am aware that during Predident Buhari’s last visit to China, the Feferal Government signed an agreement between the North South Power Company Limited and Sinohydro Corporation Limited which was valued at $479 million for the construction of 300 Mega Watts solar power in Shiriro, Niger State. But what I am advocating here, is the near-total handover of the power sector to Chinese investors. They will turn around this sector and will give Nigerian sustainable power supply.”
“Today, China’s bilateral cooperation with Africa has grown phenomenally in the past 40 years with trade leaping from $765 million to $170 billion a year. China is Africa’s largest trading partner. With the totality of Africa’s debt to China being economically sustainable and with the Chinese government saying it is willing to expand its economic relations with African states, this is the time that Nigeria should exploit the opportunity and turn around our energy sector.”
While commending the President for his anti-corruption crusade which has yielded redulrs, Mbisiogu urged him to use his visit to China to look into the plight of Nigerians resifing in the country, especially. those living Guangdong province.
“It would be appreciated if the President being the father of the nation interfaces on behalf of Nigerians living in Guangdong province, particular as concerns visa restrictions to family members and other immigration challenges they are facing,” he noted.