The Nigerian Association of Small Scale Industrialists (NASSI), has urged the Federal Government to totally unbundle the power sector to attract more investors.
Chief Solomon Vongfa, NASSI National President who made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Sunday, said unbundling the sector totally would also boost electricity supply in the country.
According to Vongfa, unbundling the sector totally would give investors the opportunity to come into the market, thereby, discouraging monopoly and bring about competition.
“The Federal Government should give opportunity to investors who are willing to bring their investments into the sector.
“When there is competition in the sector, the price of electricity will naturally go down.
“If a company can pay N50 million monthly for power and I have the capacity to generate power for them, then I should do it and pay government some incentives.
“But the law that exists does not allow other investors to come into the electricity market, and so there is monopoly,” he said.
Speaking on the planned increase of electricity tariff, Vongfa said that it was not new, as there had been continuous increase in tariff over the years.
He said that when government wanted to partially unbundle the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), the tariff was increased to attract investors.
“Even after the partial unbundling, the problem in the power sector is still not solved and everybody knows that without power, a lot of businesses cannot go on effectively.
“Increase in tariff technically means Nigerians would be made to pay for the product of some of our members.
“If the tariff is increased, definitely members will look at ways to meet up and pay their staff and also continue in production, ‘’ he said.
He appealed to the Federal Government to have dedicated lines for members of NASSI as a lot of them are clustered in the same environment.
“There should be a dedicated line for our members, so that they can do business with ease because without constant electricity, there is a problem,” he said.
