The Federal Government as sent a strong warning signal to all contractors working on power distribution projects across the country to complete their jobs within the next 60 days and handover or be blacklisted.
Vice President Namadi Sambo gave this warning at a meeting with stakeholders and contractors handling Federal Government power transmission project at his conference room at the Presidential Villa.
Government is particularly unhappy that the contractors have been unable to connect and energize completed 33KVA feeders to inject Substations of Enugu, Jos and Port Harcourt DISCOS.
Briefing State House correspondents at the end of the meeting, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Power, Godknows Igali, said, “His Excellency the Vice President directed that all transformers that are in government warehouse or at the Ports that have been cleared over the years, will now be given to the DISCOS at a fee. So in the next few days, federal government team will be talking with the DISCOS on these transformers with the view to making them available to improve power across the country.
“Any contractor who fails to deliver the project at the end of this two months will have their names blacklisted from holding any contract in Nigeria any longer. And this information will be sent to the Bureau of Public Procurement in order to have them in their data bank. So that any time they see those names as potential contractor in the future, they will not be considered”, he said.
Igali said that the meeting was “convened to review the situation of power supply in the country and essentially to work out strategies through which government investment through the NDPHC in terms of various assets at the distribution level could be completed and transferred to the DISCOS at a price, not free of charge”.
Also speaking, the Managing Director of NDPHC, James Olotu, stated that the NDPHC was carrying out through the NIPP, about 297 distribution projects across the length and breath of Nigeria and only 57 have been completed while the rest are at various stages of completion, none less than 60 percent.
He said, “At today’s meeting, Vice President who is Chairman of the Board of NDPHC has directed that all the distribution contractors must complete their projects within 60 days from (today) Friday.
“This means that by June, all the projects must be delivered. I use this medium to appeal to all distribution companies in Nigeria to ensure that they deliver these projects immediately”, he said.
Olotu stated further that, “the partnership arrangement has been established with the new owners of the DISCOS to work together with us with the view to ensuring that these projects are completed within the scheduled period.
“The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), was also there to review their area of intervention in other to ensure that the capacities of their transmission adequately meet the need of the DISCOS”, he said.
The NDPHC MD assured that government was ready to come down heavily on the contractors at the end of the 60 days if they fail to deliver on the projects.
Olotu listed the challenges on power supply to include non-availability of 33 KVA bays at the 132/33KV substations, inadequate transmission capacity at the TCN substations of Abuja, Ikeja and Port Harcourt DISCOS.
Others are insecurity in the North East, including Jos and Yola DISCOS, connection of weak existing 33 KV source to new completed injection substations at Kaduna and Ibadan, and refusal of new DISCOS owners to connect completed project in Jos and Port Harcourt.
Other challenges are frustration of lines work by aesthetic development along road works in Lagos and Rivers states, recently resolved site problems at Port Harcourt and Abuja DISCOS areas, delayed procurement of last batch of materials, including automation equipment at Eko and Abuja DISCOS.
Others are time loss on projects due to causes outside PHCN control, optimal funds management while waiting for resolution of problems like security challenges and supply issues and spreading of PHCN resources too wide.
Olotu assured however that all the challenges were being addressed by the federal government.
