How To Eliminate Darkness From Nigeria—Tony Elumelu

<p><em>How to eliminate Nigeria’s darkness<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">OpenLife Nigeria<&sol;a><&sol;strong> reports that Nigerian industrialist and philanthropist&comma; Tony Elumelu&comma; on Arise News on Wednesday shared his thoughts on a range of issues from Nigeria’s power challenges to how the private sector came together to chat the Covid-19 pandemic<br &sol;>&NewLine;Elumelu&comma; who is Group Chairman of United Bank for Africa UBA&comma; Chairman of Heirs Holdings and founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation&comma; also spoke on other wide ranging issues from banking to hospitality and unemployment&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Tony Elumelu emphasized that Nigeria’s electricity transmission lines should be privatised&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The UBA Chairman also called on generating and distributing companies as well as stakeholders in Nigeria’s power sector to agree on a deal with the federal government&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;He notes that the transmission sector is so critical to the country’s economy and would be in the interest of Nigerians that it is privatised&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Transmission Company of Nigeria &lpar;TCN&rpar; manages the electricity transmission network in the country and is fully owned and operated by the government&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;It is one of the 18 companies that was unbundled from the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria &lpar;PHCN&rpar; in April 2004 and is a product of a merger of the transmission and system operations parts of PHCN&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;TCN is responsible for evacuating electric power generated by the electricity generating companies &lpar;GenCos&rpar; and wheeling it to distribution companies &lpar;DisCos&rpar;&period; It provides the vital transmission infrastructure between the GenCos and the DisCos’ Feeder Sub-stations&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;In the area of the transmission lines&comma; I think that ultimately it should be privatised&comma;” Mr Elumelu said&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;What some of us have advocated is that the gencos and the discos&comma; the entire power stakeholders should come together and have a deal with the federal government&comma; take over the transmission line and it will be in our self interest we make sure that it works&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;If we have the transmission lines and it doesn’t work and you are generating&comma; there will be no way you will evacuate your power&period; That sector is so critical and pivotal for the survival of our power sector and is critical for improving access to electricity&period;”<br &sol;>&NewLine;The Group Chairman of UBA stated further that Nigeria needs to do more to fix its ailing power sector to ensure and improve economic prosperity in the country&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Elumelu&comma; an entrepreneur and founder of the <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;wsj&period;com">Tony Elumelu Foundation<&sol;a>&comma; argued that one complaint that is central to militating the growth of entrepreneurs is power&period; He stated that his mentees always complain of poor power supply to drive their business initiative&comma; noting that the power sector in Nigeria needs to be privatised and called for 100&comma;000 megawatts of electricity&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;It is in our self-interest to make sure it works&period; The time is now because we are all suffering this&comma;” Elumelu advised&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;In addition&comma; Elumelu stressed that end users must be prepared to pay for service rendered&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;This he said would enable operators service their operations and remain in business&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;