Power Privatisation: NCP Meeting on Disco Bids Cancelled

Ijeoma Nwogwugwu The National Council on Privatisation (NCP), which was scheduled to take place today to consider the report of the technical evaluation of bids submitted for the 11 distribution companies (discos), created from the unbundling of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), has been cancelled. No reason was given for the cancellation of the meeting, but a NCP member confided in THISDAY that a meeting will soon be rescheduled to consider the evaluation exercise conducted for the discos, as the bidders and public are anxiously waiting to know the outcome of the process. But he did not give a date on when the meeting would take place. The sudden cancellation of the meeting means that the timeline for the privatisation of PHCN assets has been altered and might affect other scheduled milestones for the privatisation process of the power sector. The power privatisation and reform programme is widely considered to be one of most critical programmes of the President Jonathan Goodluck administration, especially in a country where frequent power outages has affected the cost of doing business.