Senate South-East Caucus tasks APC on Senate Presidency

He urged the organization to continue on that path and to do even better.

The power needs of our country are grave. And we strongly believe that the right approach is the privatization of the power sector to enable serious-minded private sector players to invest in the provision of public power and ensure that they are efficient while they make a profit at the same time.

We hope that this will not be the last in the series of private power companies that are taking over power plants that are unable to meet the expectations of the post-evaluation plans.

Earlier speaking, the Director General of the Bureau of Public Enterprise (BOE) Alex Okoh explained that the philosophy around the privatization of state-owned enterprises “Is a consequence of the global paradigm shift” from public ownership and management of public utilities to allow the private sector play a more dominant role in leveraging its financial and management capacities.

He said that Ughelli Power PLC is a gas-fired thermal plant located in Delta State, commissioned in 1966 with an installed capacity then of 900 megawatts, but the available capacity at the point of privatization was 300 megawatts.

The plant, the BPE’s boss said, was one of the six gencos privatized by the Bureau on behalf of the federal government.

The Director General of BPE, Alex Okoh, explained that “As part of the 2013 privatization exercise, Ughelli Power PLC executed the performance agreement on August 21, 2013, with the BPE. In the agreement, the company committed to achieving specific improvement targets over a fiveyear lock-in period.

According to Okoh, the improvement targets covered five key areas and these are available capacity, capital expenditure, human resources, health, safety and environment, and corporate social responsibility.

The Director General explained that, in pursuit of the objective of the federal government’s privatization program, and to ensure effective and efficient management of the privatized high utilities in the generation segment of the value chain, the BPE implemented a five-year monitoring exercise designed to determine the level of performance of the respective core investors and to assess their levels of compliance with the operational thresholds and covenants enshrined in the performance agreement.

“It is pertinent to know that arising from the mandatory monitoring exercise conducted by the BPE and in the exercise of the powers vested on it, the Bureau is authorized to initiate a discharge from the monitoring regime should the enterprise be adjudged to have met the terms of the performance agreement. An enterprise may also formally request for its delisting once the key performance benchmarks have been met.

“Following a capacity determination and validation of Ughelli Power PLC by the consultants engaged by the National Council on Privatization it was determined that generation capacity had increased by about 227 percent from the operational status of 300 megawatts at the point of handover in 2013,” he stated.

The company, he said, has achieved an available capacity of 680.8 megawatts, which surpasses the minimum performance target of 670 megawatts.

He added that capital expenditure totaling N58.6bn was the covenant established or phases one and two of the post-acquisition plan, while actual investments made by the current investor were in the sum of N83.85bn; all the agreed benchmarks on the human resources, health, safety and environment, and corporate social responsibility have also been achieved.

Having exceeded the minimum performance targets and having fulfilled all the agreed obligations, the National Council on Privatization at its meeting on April 4, 2023, considered and approved the recommendations of the Bureau and its requests that the company, Ughelli Power PLC be approved for delisting from routine monitoring, BPE’s DG said.

The bureau, on behalf of the National Council on Privatization, congratulated the board and management of Transcorp Power for the milestones achieved in turning around the operations of the power generation enterprise while looking forward to a sustained collaboration in improving the outcomes in the power sector.

Tony Elumelu, Chairman of Transcorp Power Ltd, thanked the Vice President and the federal government for their confidence and trust in them, assuring that they will not disappoint the Nigerian people and the federal government.

TheSenate South-East Caucus, has urged the All Progressives Congress (APC) to zone the Senate Presidency of the 10th Assembly to the South-East. This is contained in a communique signed in Abuja on Sunday at the end of a meeting of the caucus. Reading the communique, Sen. Ifeanyi Ubah(YPP-Anambra) also urged the President-elect, Sen. Bola Tinubu to ensure that the position was zoned to the South-East. “The incoming administration of Tinubu must correct this anomaly by ensuring that the South-East is given the opportunity to produce the next Senate President. “The Presidentelect should be sensitive to the times in Nigeria and ensure the country continues to thrive on the part of equity, unity and fairness to the tripod of Nigeria (Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba) and the geopolitical zones. “With the side-lining of the South-East from producing the Presidential candidates of the major political parties before the general elections, the only means through which the zone can be compensated and given a sense of belonging is for the zone to produce the next Senate President. “This will restore confidence of the people from the South-East and South-South geo-political zones and indeed all Nigerians in the unity of the country.” The group added: “The APC must rise above primordial and political interest. “It must also shun the winner takes all syndrome and pursue ethnoreligious inclusivity and a strong, virile, united, progressive, prosperous, equitable and just democratic nation. “The SouthEast has been denied the chance of producing the president of Nigeria since 1966. “The SouthSouth has produced president for six years and also had Deputy Senate President In the outgoing administration.” “The only zone in the South that has not been favoured is the South-East.” “The South-South has produced president for six years and also had Deputy Senate President In the outgoing administration.” “The only zone in the South that has not been favoured is the SouthEast