The Director-General, Bureau of Public Enterprises, Mr. Benjamin Dikki, has claimed that electricity consumers in Lagos State now get 18-hour uninterrupted power supply.
His claim was however countered by residents in the state who spoke with our correspondent on Friday.
Dikki, who made the remarks when members of the Abuja Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture paid a courtesy visit to the bureau in Abuja, stated that power privatisation in Nigeria had started yielding positive results.
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He noted that power supply in Lagos and other parts of the country would have improved considerably but for the shortage of gas supply.
Dikki, in a statement issued by the Head, Public Affairs, Mr. Chigbo Anichebe, said the new power owners had invested heavily to upgrade infrastructure and other requirements to give Nigerians steady and uninterrupted power supply “but the impediment is steady gas supply.”
While appealing to Nigerians to be patient with the new owners of the power assets, the DG maintained that government was doing everything possible to solve the gas challenge.
He said, “BPE does not embark on propaganda to beat its chest but take advantage of platforms provided by credible organisations like ABUCCIMA to showcase the bureau’s achievements.”
But speaking with our correspondent on the issue, Chima Edwards, a resident in Ojo Local Government Area of Lagos, said the claim was far from the truth.
He said, “I wonder where the 18 hours power is being supplied. We hardly get three hours uninterrupted power in a day. Maybe they mean the highbrow areas and if that’s the case, they should be specific instead of generalising.”
Another resident in Obalende area of Lagos, Gboyega Opeyemi, said, “They (government) should please name the areas in Lagos that now enjoy 18 hours uninterrupted power supply, because it is unbelievable that some people now get power for such a long period in a day. I don’t think that statement is true.”
Meanwhile, Dikki, while speaking on the achievements of the bureau, noted that the pension reform had attracted over N4.2tn into the financial system and expressed the hope that in the next few years, “this will quadruple and give the banks stable funds to give long term loans at low rates.”
He appealed for the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill in its original context to open up the oil and gas sectors so that jobs would be created to tackle the growing unemployment in the country.
He said, “I appeal to relevant stakeholders and credible organisations like ABUCCIMA to prevail on the National Assembly to the pass the PIB with clear separation of the role of policy formulation, regulation and operation to open up the oil and gas sectors so that jobs will be created to take care of the country’s teeming unemployed population.”
The First Deputy President, ABUCCIMA, Mr. Tony Ejinkeonye, informed the DG that the purpose of the visit was to partner with BPE to showcase its activities during the association’s forthcoming 9th Abuja Trade Fair.
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