PIA implementation: Buhari insists on 12-month transition period
….. assured of improved power supply by 2025
Oredola Adeola
President Muhammadu Buhari, on Monday, gave an indication that the 12- month time frame given to the members of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) Implementation Committee to complete all processes for the successful operationalization of the Act will not be extended.
The President gave this indication while speaking at the opening of a two-day Mid-Term Ministerial Performance Review Retreat organized to assess progress made towards achieving the nine key priorities of his administration.
Meanwhile, some industry analysts and stakeholders have expressed concerns over the prospects of full implementation of the new bill signed into law on 16th August 2021.
But President Buhari while speaking at the event urged the committee to hasten the process of transitioning as the sector has waited for over two decades for the law.
On the power sector, Buhari said the execution of critical projects through the Transmission Rehabilitation and Expansion Programme, will result in achieving the national goal of improved power supply by 2025.
He said the implementation of a ‘Willing Buyer-Willing Seller’ Policy has opened up opportunities for increased delivery of electricity to underserved homes and industries.
The Buhari administration declared the willing-buyer- willing-seller policy as one of the surest steps to addressing Nigeria’s power challenges.
The Willing buyer and Willing Seller scheme was introduced by the administration in 2019, giving permission for other private institutions to take up the responsibility of generating power, if the generation companies do not have the resources to produce electricity to make power available to the citizenry.
The scheme was meant to decentralise power such that more power companies can produce power where they would sell at a tariff that will not be regulated.