The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu says the sector is currently facing challenges on account of absence of adherence to good corporate governance practices.
He spoke at the corporate governance forum Monday in Abuja, where a performance scorecard for State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) was also launched.
According to him, poor governance and performance management practices have eroded value across government owned entities in the power sector value chain.
He said:“Let me give you practical examples of Out of about 14,000 megawatts installed capacity that we have across our generating plants. Government owned plants constitute about 30% of this capacity, usually over 4000 plants owned by Niger Delta power holding company which is 100% owned by the government.
“It will surprise you that all these plants with installed capacity of over 4000 megawatts since inception, have not generated beyond 20% of their capacity. They have produced between 500 megawatts and 800 megawatts out of over 1000 megawatts of capacity. You can only imagine if compared to private sector owned plants like Azura, Transcorp, Pacific, all that have performed the worst, which is why corporate governance of mass government practices must be items on the priority list of the managers of government shares in all these enterprises”.
Adelabu maintained that improved corporate governance is not only about internal efficiency, it is also central to national development.
Good governance,he said, will not only ensure their operational excellence, but also boost investor confidence, facilitate regulatory compliance and protect public interests.
He added:“We recognize that improved corporate governance is not only about internal efficiency, it is also central to national development. It ensures that public resources are not only at the door and effectively to serve the broader means of reliability, access and energy transition.
“Let me commend MOFI for leading the charge in repositioning the federal government’s asset management functions and in embedding government as a strategic priority for all federal government owned enterprises.
“The launch of the public governance scorecard and the pilot assessments are important steps in building a culture of performance, a culture of transparency across the public enterprise and scale”.
