The Nigerian government does not plan to privatise the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), has said.
Yunana Malo, Director, Energy Department of the BPE said at a media conference on Monday in Abuja, that the bureau would instead hand over the company to a private manager on a concession arrangement to get maximum value.
He said transmission was the weak link in the power reform, as generation which was privatised had since attracted investments, making it more efficient.
He said the generation capacity had improved, adding that 60 per cent of the distribution segment had also been partially privatised and was beginning to pick up through the reforms of the Federal Government.
“The seemingly weak link is the transmission component, it is still 100 per cent owned by the FG,” he said.
“The idea is to think outside the box and bring in solutions that will make the transmission component service the value chain, and make it more efficient.
“Government is not thinking of privatising, it is thinking of ways and means that the private capital can be brought into the transmission component without giving out the ownership of Transmission Company,” said Mr Malo.
On the federal government’s 40 per cent stake in the Distribution Companies (DisCos), Mr Malo said the shares were still intact and protected by BPE.
BPE Director-General, Alex Okoh, said over the years, N1 trillion had been generated from 234 concluded transactions of previously government-owned enterprises from various sectors of the economy.
NAN
