PHCN PRIVATISATION NECESSARY FOR POWER SECTOR STABILITY – UNACHUKWU

THE Federal Government's privatisation of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) is necessary for the power sector in Nigeria to stabilise, a top official of the Port Harcourt commerce chamber has said.

Mr Emeka Unachukwu, the President of the Port Harcourt Chamber of Commerce, who said this in an interview with newsmen in Port Harcourt, said that the power sector needed to be left to the private sector for effective management.

Unachukwu said the President's effort at uplifting the power sector was a “step in the right direction and a way forward”.

“This is definitely the way forward, we are on the right track; the government is on the right track; the government of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan is taking the bull by the horn and the ORS is on the same page with him on this.

“On February 21, the agreement was signed with a distribution company who are going to run some of these facilities and it is a very bold step, other sections of power are being privatised, money has been given out to PHCN workers who are going to be retrenched or retire so what else” he was quoted as saying.

“So these are bold steps in the right direction, and I believe that with the way the government is going, it will not be long before this power problem will stop.

“If you come to a place like Rivers state for instance, our problem is not generation, we have enough power, the problem is distribution.

“I believe with the work the Rivers state government has done and with the emergence of a new distribution company that will run this zone, there is going to be stable power.”

Unachukwu described power as the life wire of every economy and said its generation and distribution should be of paramount importance to the government.

According to him, the future is very bright because the government has risen to its responsibility in the area of power supply.