The Nigerian Power sector is set for a dramatic change with President Muhammadu Buhari signing into law the constitutional amendment allowing states in the country to licence, generate, transmit, and distribute electricity.
The President signed this Constitutional Amendment Bill as part of 16 others, into law, giving State Houses of Assembly & Judiciaries now have constitutionally guaranteed financial independence.
The announcement was made by Tolu Ogunlesi, the Special Assistant to President on Digital & New Media via his Twitter handle. According to him:
“JUST IN: President @MBuhari has signed 16 Constitution Amendment Bills into Law. By this signing, State Houses of Assembly & Judiciaries now have constitutionally-guaranteed financial independence, while Railways have moved from Exclusive Legislative List to the Concurrent List.”
“Another landmark change: By virtue of the Presidential Assent, Nigerian States can NOW generate, transmit and distribute electricity in areas covered by the national grid. Wasn’t allowed pre-amendment. This is genuine, realistic Restructuring — through the Constitution,” he added.
Nigeria’s power generation is estimated to have an installed capacity of nearly 13,000 megawatts. However only 7,500 megawatts of that is available and less than 4,000 megawatts is dispatched to the grid each day for its more than 200 million people.
Hitherto, states were not allowed to generate their own electricity and they had to rely on the Federal Government to generate power. The amendment breaks the monopoly of the Federal Government of Nigeria to generate and distribute electricity thereby giving each state the responsibility of generating its own power.
This will allow for investments into the power sector thereby increasing the availability of power and growth in the commercial activities of the states
