The Central Bank of Nigeria has justified its intervention in the power section,saying it embarked on several performance improvement projects to reduce the various challenges plaguing the electricity industry in the country.
The apex bank’s Director of Development Finance, Yusuf Philip Yila; Director of Strategy Management, Clement Buari; and the Director of Trade and Exchange, Ozoemena Nnaji,disclosed this when they visited the Eko Electricity Distribution Company as part of its monitoring and evaluation tour of the CBN-funded intervention facilities for electricity distribution companies in Nigeria.
Speaking,Yila explained that the CBN had intervened by funding the procurement, installation, rehabilitation, and replacement of some electricity distribution infrastructure to assist the Discos’ capacity in the delivery of adequate and reliable power supply to Nigerians.
He said the CBN commenced phase zero of the National Mass Metering Programme in 2020 to address the problem of metering. As a result, adding that the apex bank’s monitoring and evaluation team visited the Disco for progress reports on these projects.
He commended Eko Disco for its effort towards the achievement of the Federal Government/CBN intervention schemes.
The National Mass Metering Scheme is very important to the CBN,he said,adding that the tour is also meant to carry out due diligence on the execution of phase zero of the scheme and how the apex bank and the Disco can collaborate better in proceeding to the next phase.
Speaking,the Managing Director, Eko Disco, Dr Tinuade Sanda, was quoted as expressing her appreciation to the CBN for its effort in improving the power sector.
According to her, the CBN-funded Capex projects had helped her company in improving its supply to meet the high demand for electricity in its network.
She added that the projects have brought about the rehabilitation and replacement of obsolete equipment.
She he said the NMMP came at the appropriate time to reduce our losses and cushion the effect of the Service Reflective Tariff.
