Power sector reforms expert, Eyo Ekpo, has suggested ways and the pathway through which Akwa Ibom State can achieve universal access to electricity.
Ekpo said the state must appoint “a team of capable professionals and credible commissioners to develop technical and economic regulations for the sector.”
He urged the state to establish a market design that enables sustained investments into the state electricity market.
Ekpo, who is the team lead, United Kingdom, Nigeria Infrastructure Advisory Facility, stated this during the electricity summit in Ikot Ekpene, Akwa Ibom State, organised by the state government on Thursday..
He said his suggestions would protect the entity and ensure its independence, similar to the way the Enugu State government has been handling its regulatory commission.
According to him, the state government should focus on bringing together the elements of the state electricity value chain in a mutually supporting commercial framework that is focused on serving it first.
The former commissioner of the National Electricity Regulatry Commission (NERC) advised the state government to recover Ibom Power Company and restore it to the promising path on which its started. He further asked the government to put it into a commercial relationship with the state electricity distribution company.
“Thereafter, structure their collective operations to maximise reach and commercial intensity by bringing in quality management for both companies via a transparent and professionally executed PPP process, improving corporate,” he said, maintaining that the “commercial value chain is the bedrock of the establishment and growth of the state electricity market.” He stressed the need for a focus on the off -grid market.
“In the same professional manner in which the state regulator will be established, it should set up the State Electrification Agency. Use natural gas wherever it is cost -efficient to do so. Integrate renewables into the state energy mix, using biomass, wind and small hydro alongside natural gas, but do so in a sustainable, economically sensible manner,” he recommended.
Eyo also suggested that the state government should mobilise investment and investors that are eagerly looking for the kind of opportunities Akwa Ibom has to offer. “Structure bankable public-private -partnerships, leverage the pool of funding from Development Finance Institutions that have been looking for opportunities to engage with Nigeria’s infrastructure needs with serious decision makers outside Abuja,” Ekpo further advised.
“Also, it should attract both diaspora and domestic capital , particularly from Nigeria’s pension funds that were designed just for this purpose and have also long-awaited credible opportunities to invest the over N150bn of pension contributions that they collect each month .
“Perhaps, unnoticed but also paramount, invest seriously in building up human capital, train regulators and policymakers and be relentless about giving them every opportunity to develop their skills.”
On lessons from the federal government power sector reforms, he said the government should be a partner, not a gatekeeper, and should support states like Akwa Ibom and others as they embark on the very hard labour of creating pathways where there were absolutely none before.
“This means a collaborative and not an aloof and one -sided transition of regulatory responsibility or shouting at states and telling them that they do not know what they are doing.
“This means that as states are restructuring their intra-state markets, so also must the federal government restructure the Transmission Company of Nigeria to make it become like the states-driven by commercial intensity.
“We must never forget that electricity reform is not abstract. It is about the child who cannot study at night, the patient whose surgery fails without power, the entrepreneur forced to shut down,” he stated.
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