Privatisation Of Power

The recent privatisation of power companies that used to operate as Power Holding Company Nigeria (PHCN) should really come as good news to Nigerians but in a country where there is very little to cheer about it’s being greeted with cautious optimism.

If privatisation of the telecommunication sector in the early 2000s is anything to go by then the privatisation of the power sector should come to Nigeria as very good news if not a complete game changer.

Before the telecommunication sector was privatised there were fewer than 400,000 land lines in Nigeria and even far fewer mobile telephones almost all operated by the now defunct NITEL. Owning a telephone set at home was considered a luxury that a former minister who is now a high ranking Senator once insensitively remarked, “telephone is not for the poor.”   Today merely twelve years after the first call was made with a GSM phone there are not fewer than a hundred million subscribers in Nigeria opening up several business opportunities in the country. In addition to that, thanks to smartphone technology most of these subscribers have Internet access on their phone making Nigeria one of the countries with the fastest growing amount of people with Internet access in the world.

I could also talk about business opportunities that GSM has brought to Nigeria in terms of employments that have been provided by the telecommunication companies and the millions of Naira paid out to artistes in endorsement fees but this post is about the power sector and not the telecommunication sector.

The power sector is potentially bigger than the telecommunication sector how bigger is what cannot yet be determined. The impact on the economy would even be felt more again to what extent is what we are yet to see.

It is expected that services will surely improve maybe not to the point of uninterrupted power supply like they have in the first World but there would surely be an improvement.