A Professor of Energy and Electricity Law, at the University of Lagos (UNILAG), Prof. Yemi Oke has said that the amended electricity act signed into law by President Bola Tinubu is strategic in driving Nigeria’s energy sector.
The university Don and lawyer disclosed this on Saturday during the Nairametrics Energy Outlook event held virtually on April 27, 2024.
The event tagged, “Harnessing Nigeria’s Energy Sector to Supercharge Our Economic Growth, drew experts to brainstorm ideas that would move the energy sector forward for the betterment of Nigeria.
Oke explained that the amended law was germane following the need to put into operation legislation that would drive the power sector to its desired destination.
What he said
- “Expectedly, we had anticipated a new regime, a total departure from the status quo particularly in electricity regulation and management under President Bola Tinubu’s administration in Nigeria.
- “So when he(Tinubu) was on board, he hit the ground running. The first strategic step was to sign into law, the electricity bill, now an act, within days of getting into power.
- “The first plan was strategic, however imperfect that law is, we needed a piece of legislation to operationalize the power sector; that’s a major one.”
The don added that the new law was a win-win for the power sector because a number of issues associated with the old law had been taken care of, adding that it was the “first key change” orchestrated by the Tinubu administration.
Oke also acknowledged the bold move by the current administration to subsidies power, saying it was a wise decision against waste.
He said,
- “The federal government now pulled back the subsidy in the power sector, which was something I had been advocating.
- “Because a lot of Nigerians are not aware that too many subsidies exist in the cacaus called energy, petroleum, gas, and power but we are focusing on petroleum but humongous subsidy exists in the power sector which is not reasonably justifiable.
- “And we said, that was going to affect the workings of the federal government and the government has been subsidising production as against actual consumption.
- “Meaning, the government has been subsidising wastages because there wasn’t any incentive for them to get efficient with their cost of production.”
The professor maintained that even though technical and operational issues still persist in the power sector, the strategic move of signing the amended electricity bill and removing subsidies in the power sector has set the nation on the right track.
“Now this current administration took it up and acted decisively. The body language now is that if we continue the way we are going, we will most likely get most of the challenges in the power sector solved.
“There are technical issues in the power sector, there are regulatory issues, there are operational issues, so many issues but we have to take one step at a time,” he added.
More insight
- President Bola Tinubu officially signed the Electricity Act (Amendment) Bill, 2024, making it law, three months ago.
- The bill was sponsored by Babajimi Benson of Lagos State’s Ikorodu Federal Constituency, and was ratified by the House of Representatives on July 27, 2023, and the Senate on November 14, 2023.
- The presidency said electricity Act (Amendment) Bill, 2024, seeks to address the development and environmental concerns of host communities, and sets aside five percent of the actual annual operating expenditures of power generating companies (GENCOs) from the preceding year for the development of their respective host communities.
