Energy minister wants power cuts ended within two years

Power and Steel Minister Bola Ige on Thursday gave the National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) two years to end the frequent power cuts that have plagued Nigeria, AFP reported.

"I have taken it as my first task and duty to apologise to all Nigerians on behalf of NEPA," AFP reported Ige as saying. The cost of the daily power cuts to industry and private users was "so colossal it is mind-boggling", he said.

The minister said he had set clear targets for the team of new managers brought in to NEPA since the new government took office. "The target for the power sector is put in very simple language," Ige said. "Cut down incidents of power outages by 50 percent in six months, by 75 percent in 12 months and by 100 percent in 24. No excuses will be accepted or acceptable. Meet target or be fired."

Phased privatisation

Meanwhile, President Olusegun Obasanjo on Thursday set out a three-phase plan for privatising more than 1,000 state enterprises, news organisations reported.

The key privatisations of telecommunications firm NITEL, power firm NEPA, oil refineries, the state airline and a fertiliser company will be held back until the last phase, Reuters quoted Obasanjo as saying at the inauguration of a National Council on Privatisation set up to oversee the process.

``For the utility companies such as NITEL and NEPA a lot more work would have to be carried out ...,'' he said. ``Privatisation will only follow after we have established the correct value of these parastatals. The government will not be short-changed in this exercise.''

Obasanjo said the first phase, to be completed by the end of 1999, involved selling shares in companies quoted on the stock exchange that were part of a privatisation round in the 1980s. Phase II, for which no date was given, will include hotels and vehicle assembly plants.