- Senate passes the Electricity Bill 2022.
- The bill was approved following the report released by the committee on power.
The Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has approved the Electricity Bill 2022. This was announced by the committee chairman, Senator Gabriel Suswam, in a presentation.
Senator Gabriel noted that the bill seeks to, amongst others, provide an Ideal legal and institutional framework to leverage the modest gains of the privatisation phase of the electric power sector in Nigeria. He added that when signed into law, the bill would improve the utilisation of generated power through increased investments in new technologies to enhance transmission and distribution of generated power to minimise aggregate value chain losses.
According to the lawmaker, the legislation would “reinvigorate the Institutional framework for the reform of the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry initiated and implemented by the Federal Government.” In addition, he stated that the bill’s provisions seek to promote policies and regulatory measures to ensure the expansion of power transmission networks in Nigeria to address any imbalance in the existing transmission infrastructure.
The Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, midway through consideration of the bill, sought to know the role and operational capacity of banks that had taken over distribution companies (discos) indebted to them.
Responding, Senator Suswam explained that the take-over of entities (Discos) by banks was duly carried out in collaboration with the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NER) and Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE). According to him, there was a transitional process put in place during the take-over of the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company by the United Bank for Africa to ensure efficiency in service delivery.
The Electricity Bill, 2022, after a clause-by-clause consideration of the committee’s report by the Committee of the Whole, was passed by the upper chamber.
Lawan, in his remarks after the passage of the bill, stated, “because of its importance and sensitivity, we would like to see a quick concurrence by the House of Representatives because time is of the essence as far as Nigeria is concerned when you talk about electricity and energy supplies in Nigeria.
“So, we would like to see this bill be fully processed in the National Assembly and sent to the Executive side of government for the consideration for assent by Mr President.