The Federal Government, yesterday, announced the suspension of funding for the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN.
The suspension which became effective on January 1, followed the winding up of the power company, in line with its privatisation programme.
Accordingly, the staff of the PHCN at its corporate headquarters in Abuja, are currently being redeployed to its successor companies.
Clarifying issues further in a statement, Minister of Power, Prof. Barth Nnaji, was quoted as saying: “The regulatory agency (the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC) has already directed that no further funds be made available to the PHCN corporate headquarters since it is not a market participant with effect from January 1, 2012.
Therefore, “staff who choose to remain in the former PHCN corporate headquarters building rather than proceed forthwith to the companies to which they have been redeployed, would find that there is no work to do in the building and that there is nobody to pay them at the end of the month for doing nothing in that building.”
Underscoring the legality of the action, the minister said the Electric Power Sector Reform, EPSR Act 2005, “empowers the National Council on Privatisation, NCP, to incorporate an initial holding company within six months of the coming into force of the Act. This holding company would assume the staff, assets and liabilities of the defunct National Electric Power Authority, NEPA,” which gave birth to the PHCN.”
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