In a bid to find a lasting solution to the epileptic power supply in the country, the Housing Development Advocacy Network (HDAN) has called for the decentralization of the Nation’s power sector.
Executive Director of HDAN, Mr. Festus Adebayo made the clarion call during a press briefing in Abuja.
Speaking on the sector’s development in the last couple of years, Adebayo said that with the inadequacy of the national grid to meet the growing electricity needs of Nigerians, the need to decentralize the grid to allow sub-national entities to generate and distribute electricity can not be overemphasized.
While urging concerned stakeholders to chart a new path to address generation, distribution and transmission challenges in the power sector, he stressed that power generation and distribution should be removed from the exclusive list and moved to the concurrent list.
According to the HDAN Boss, more efforts were needed in the sector, to refurbish feeders, transformers, and substations across the nation.
He also advocated for effective sector regulation, emphasizing the necessity for the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to be reinforced in order to carry out its regulatory functions.
He said: “The thing to do is to completely decentralize electricity generation and distribution in the country. Nigeria is too big to have a centralized electricity production company. There are eight means of generating electricity globally. Fortunately, Nigeria can utilize the eight different means.
“The central grid system is inadequate and unable to meet the needs of the people. Enough of this lazy policy since 1960!!!.”
Adebayo also urged for both state governments and private organizations’ involvelvement to enable adequate generation and distribution of electricity, saying: “Bonny Island doesn’t subscribe to the national grid and light is constant. There are private organizations that are generating electricity through solar even at a lower cost.”
