'Buhari’ll sustain Obasanjo, Jonathan’s power reforms'

President Muhammadu Buhari will sustain reforms in the power sector initiated by previous administrations of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Power, Ambassador Godknows Igali, has said.

Igali gave an assurance that the government would not only sustain the reforms but also fine-tune the policy guiding the operations of the sector in order to address the challenges facing the electricity industry.

Where necessary, he added, the Buhari government would initiate new measures to improve the performance of the sector and provide electricity for the nation.

Igali spoke at the opening of a two-day Powering Africa Conference organised by the World Bank Group in partnership with Energynet Limited, which opened in Abuja on Monday.

Also at the conference, a former Minister of Power, Prof. Barth Nnaji, urged the Federal Government to decentralise the country’s power transmission network.

Igali said Buhari had not left anyone in doubt of his intention to continue with the reform programme of the previous governments as well as fine-tune and initiate processes to stabilise the power sector.

According to him, Buhari’s commitment to continuity has been shown in his stand to further push for the sanctity of the regulatory environment in order to give investors the comfort they require to invest in the country.

He said, “We want to assure you that President Muhammadu Buhari has reiterated over and over that this government will do everything to make the environment in the power sector better for our investors.

“Investors can have the confidence that their investments in the power sector are not only secure, but we will ensure that there is sanctity of stable regulatory environment for you to invest.”

Igali added, “You can be sure that the government on its part will continue to refine anything that needs to be refined to enable you do your business in Nigeria. We are also looking at the diversification of our power base. Very soon, we will commence a coal to power plant and there is a lot of look on hydro and solar sources.

“The vice president has also continued to assure that they would improve on what they met on ground and that the government would continue to fine-tune aspects of the reform that needs to be fine-tuned.”

Nnaji urged the government to break up the transmission infrastructure into regions in order to stimulate efficiency and investments.