Politically speaking, the expectation by many is that sub-nationals and non-state actors would urgently take advantage of the created liberalized space in the power sector to invest, given the huge electricity gap in Nigeria.
This expectation
is yet to be met since the signing of the Electric Act 2023 that eliminated the
monopoly in the power sector by moving issues of generation, transmission and
distribution of electricity from the exclusive to the concurrent list because
the sector is yet to be a beehive of activities as envisaged.
Apart
from few states like Enugu, Ekiti, Oyo, most of the states seem to be lukewarm
in their attitude towards bridging the gap that exist by directly or indirectly
paying attention to the sector in the areas of generation, transmission and
distribution of electricity.
There is no gain-saying the fact that production cannot occur without adequate electricity and one thought that with the legal hurdle cleared, states would be in a hurry to improve power supply in their territories with the aim of stimulating production and improving the quality of life of their people. It is surprising that for now it is a non-state actor, Aba Geometrics that has taken full advantage of the new law by completing its 181MW power plant in Aba, although it started work on the project some years back.
This is what visionary leaders are
known for and we expect state governments to key into such vision by either
building electricity infrastructure directly or indirectly through partnering
with genuine investors or encouraging interested players to enter the sector.
The
good thing is that sub-nationals and non-state actors can focus on any area of
interest to them in the value chain. Those contemplating investing in Power
plants have a lot of options on the type of plant they are interested in
because Nigeria is blessed with several sources of power generation, for
example states like Enugu, Benue, Kogi, and Edo have abundance of coal deposit.
The northern states are blessed with abundant sources for renewable energy like
hydro, sun, wind while the south-south part of the country has huge gas
deposit.
Those
who are interested in the transmission part of the value chain can invest in
constructing Transmission stations to improve the electricity situation in
their areas. In this regard also, investors can take advantage of the existing
national grid infrastructure after obtaining necessary approvals and expand
existing infrastructure or connect newly-built ones to the grid system.
Investors
can equally invest in the distribution leg of the value chain by building
Injection stations for better electricity delivery to their people. Being the
retail leg of the value chain, there is need for more Injection station so as
to effectively take electricity to the end-users.
Hopefully,
states and non-state actors will show more enthusiasm by investing in the
electricity sector in the same manner that states are involved in building
transport and other infrastructure for the uplifting of the quality of lives of
their people and to stimulate socio-economic activities within their jurisdictions.
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