By Adewale Sanyaolu
The Senate Committee on Privatisation and Commercialisation has pledged to convene a stakeholders meeting over the recovery of a N1.69 trillion debt owed Egbin Power Plc.
Chairman of the Committee, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, made the pledge during a working visit to the power plant located in Egbin, Ikorodu, Lagos, yesterday.
Kalu, who was represented by the Vice Chairman of the Committee, Senator Emmanuel Udende, lauded the patriotic posture of the company in ensuring that the debt doesn’t impact its operations.
Kalu said the Committee will, as a matter of utmost national importance, invite all parties owing the company in order to ensure the debt is liquidated as soon as possible.
He said the essence of the Committee’s visit is to have first-hand information on the operations of privatized assets, their challenges, and setbacks in order to intervene.
He lamented that challenges, which include grid collapses, gas shortages, vandalism, forex, and debt, are some setbacks confronting the power firm.
“Despite these challenges, I am surprised that the company is still operating. I like that spirit, and that is why we must rise up to support them. We will invite the Bureau of Public Enterprises, NBET, and take a look at all these challenges holistically,” he said.
Also speaking, Managing Director of Egbin Power Plc, Mr. Mokhtar Bounour, said he was glad at the visit of the Committee as it afforded him the opportunity to table the challenges confronting the firm.
He explained that access to gas at the right domestic price remains crucial to the success of the company. He equally added that the frequent grid disturbances remained a major threat to its operations.
He, however, expressed optimism that the visit of the Committee, especially regarding the debt, would help in bringing some of these setbacks to rest.
In his comments, the Chairman of Egbin Power Plc, Mr. Kola Adesina, expressed concern over the constant attacks on power infrastructure.
Adesina lamented that vandalism of power assets is a setback to the growth of the power industry, which leaves the nation poorer.
He advised that a stakeholders’ convergence, involving meetings of communities, should be convened to address the menace.
He explained that the protection of the assets is a collective responsibility of all because the vandals live within us.
Adesina maintained that without electricity, there cannot be development of any sort; hence, the focus must be for every hand to be on deck to take on the monster of asset destruction.
As an organisation, he said Egbin Power is driven by the dream, vision, and aspiration that we will be able to bring energy to life responsibly.
“Now, of course, to be able to do that, there will be challenges, man-made, circumstantial, and situational, and all sorts. So we are really prepared to confront these challenges,” he added.
According to him, the key thing that we need as a nation is the fact that without electricity, there cannot be growth or development, saying employment that we are all looking for, including job creation, productivity, among others, are all associated with electricity.
“If we are looking for more forex in terms of the reserves of the country, we need electricity to play a critical role in making that happen. So invariably, as an organisation, our vision is to be a critical component that would enable the growth and development of industries in Nigeria for the purpose of creating employment and making Nigeria truly a developed nation.
Do we truly want Nigeria to grow? If the answer is yes, vandals live amongst us. When vandals vandalize, they are either using the materials they have stolen for economic purposes or they are doing it for mischief reasons. So either way, both cannot and in any way enable the growth of this nation.
As a matter of fact, it makes all of us poorer. So I think there is a need for a concerted community-based conversation. Once the security people start to do something in that regard, we need to make it a bottom-up approach.
Somehow, midway, we can now have a consensual approach to this. It’s a value system thing, and it needs to be addressed frontally.”