No Agreement To Sell Or Concession TCN, Says BPE

The Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) says an agreement to sell or concession the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has not been reached.

The Director of Energy Department at BPE, Yunana Malo, said this on Wednesday at the 56th virtual Power Dialogue held in Abuja.

However, he said discussions were ongoing on how the agency could be managed properly.

TCN is the electricity transmission arm of the power sector and is owned and run by the Federal Government, while the generation and distribution arms of the industry were privatised in November 2013.

The Federal Government had listed TCN and some other national assets as items to be sold or put up for concession in order to raise funds to finance the country’s budget.

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Speaking at the event, Malo said, “I want to put it upfront that the government has not yet taken any decision on TCN. I want it to be very clear, it (government) has not taken a decision.

“We are on the drawing board looking at all possibilities. And like you know, before you go out to war, you have to plan, strategise and know what your objectives are and how you intend to achieve them. That is what we are currently doing.”

The director stated the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) had called for a thorough study of the issues before a decision would be taken about the power transmission firm.

The BPE director said, “The NCP has requested that we look at all the issues and that is why we find this panel very timely and it is going to help us tremendously.

“We believe that the reform in the power sector, which largely intended to bring in the private sector into the operations of the industry, will require that the value chain will be such that operators are like-minded.”