Chairman of Transcorp Group and United Bank for Africa (UBA), Tony Elumelu, believes that Nigeria’s power sector is a walking corpse, and it may collapse soon if no urgent action is taken, The Sun reports.
Speaking to CNBC Africa, Elumelu said; “the agency of government that has responsibility for making sure that this sector delivers on its potential is not doing well enough. We are owed a lot of money.” “Transcorp Power Holdings is owed almost N50 billion. When we put in the invoice for this month, we should be owed almost N54 or N55 billion. How do you survive in business like this? How?”
“We are struggling because of our diversified resource base, what of others? Something urgent and drastic must be done. It is as urgent as yesterday,” he added. He went on to ask the government to allow it generate its own gas, adding that “where we are located, we are sitting on a lot of gas”. He said Transcorp was negotiating with GE to bring in turbines worth $500 million, but had to shelve the plan because the company could not secure the necessary foreign exchange for the deal.
