- It is the concern of the petitioner that the funds have not been judiciously used and that the project ought to have been delivered by now
The House of Representatives Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has called upon the management of the Central Bank of Nigeria and 11 Electricity Distribution Companies (DISCOs) to account for loans totaling $321 million and N18.2 billion, which were allocated for accelerating transmission distribution interface, lines, and substation projects.
This summons was issued on Thursday during the appearance of Sule Abdulaziz, the Managing Director of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), before the committee.
The Committee’s Chairman, Bamidele Salam (PDP, Osun), stated that these loans were obtained during the previous administration to improve transmission and distribution infrastructure but were not utilized effectively.
“Sometime in 2021, the then president Muhammadu Buhari granted that certain funds be made available for the purpose of enhancing the capacity of our transmission and distribution lines to be able to have a more robust power sector intervention and these funds were made available for certain projects to the distribution companies.
It is the concern of the petitioner that the funds have not been judiciously used and that the project ought to have been delivered by now upon which we caused a letter to be written to the Transmission Company of Nigeria which also sent in a response stating the status report of the project as well as the procedure for the implementation of that loan disbursement and execution of the project by the distribution companies,” he said.
Also speaking, the TCN Market Operator, Edmond Eje, said NERC oversaw engagement between TCN and 11 DISCOs to align on a list of critical interface projects that would significantly increase TCN’s capacity to unlock DISCOs energy demand in critical load centres.
He said a total of 125 projects were identified and agreed upon in the tripartite engagement.
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