Adebayo Adelabu, the minister of power, says the federal government has suspended the transfer of regulatory authority to state governments.

Adelabu disclosed this while speaking at the 8th edition of the Africa Energy Market Place (AEMP) conference in Abuja on Friday.

In April, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) transferred oversight of the electricity market in Ondo, Ekiti and Enugu to the state’s electricity regulatory bureau (OSERB).

The minister, however, said the transfer would be suspended due to the need for state governments, and stakeholders in the power sector to properly understand what is required to operate an electricity market.

He said adequate understanding of the transfer of regulatory oversight of the electricity market to states is imperative for the survival and sustainability of the nation’s power sector.

“Therefore, we must tread carefully, we should not be in a hurry. The market is not a mature market, it is not mature enough. With everything centralised for a single regulator, we have a myriad of issues. Now we intend to create a regulatory framework across the 36 states, it is something that we must do in a highly systematic and strategic manner,” he said.

“We need just a couple of states as a pilot, which is why I actually halted granting of further regulatory autonomy to states.”

‘TRANSFER OF REGULATORY OVERSIGHT IN SELECTED STATES’

Adelabu also said the transfer of regulatory oversight will be piloted in selected states across the geopolitical zones in the country.

“When we have each of these zones represented in the pilot and we allow it to run for three to six months, or up to a year, all the possible issues would have been reflected so that we are going to have a learning curve, and all those issues will be addressed before granting further regulatory autonomy because I have a feeling that we don’t have a comprehensive understanding of what this autonomy means,” he said.

“The fact that we gave a state regulatory autonomy doesn’t mean that it’s just about distribution of electricity but it is regulation across the value chain. Generation within your territory, transmission within your territory, and distribution in your territory, including tariff setting.

“The moment you take over the regulatory activities of  Lagos state, when we talk about tariff, about subsidy, it will be on your neck as a state. I do not know the balance sheet you want to leverage to guarantee the necessary settlements on a monthly basis.

“So we all have to sit down and let everybody have a complete understanding of what this means. We will know if we are ready to have full autonomy or it will be a partial autonomy for the meantime before we achieve a mature electricity market.”

The minister further said most stakeholders underestimate the capacity required to have regulatory authorities in 36 states, and the FCT.

Adelabu also said each state needs to have a framework capable enough to protect assets and liabilities, address vandalism and consumer protection, and have enough capital for continuous investments and maintenance of infrastructures.

[TheCable]

I am writing this week’s column from Nelson Mandela University in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, where I have come to deliver a talk on media theory. But this column isn’t about the talk or about South Africa. It’s about the enduring problems of electricity generation and distribution in Nigeria, which I have brooded over for quite some time.

It’s ironic that I am writing about Nigeria’s new economic apartheid in electricity consumption from the previous land of apartheid where electricity is a human right, where even the poorest of the poor “have a public law right to receive electricity” even before the abolishment of apartheid, according to F. Dube and C.G. Moyo in their 2022 article titled “The Right to Electricity in South Africa.”  

I’m not sure there’s any modern country on earth where electricity is as precarious, as insufficient, as unreliable, and as socially stratified as it is in Nigeria. The hierarchization of electricity distribution into “bands” in which people classified as “band A” (read: the wealthy) get the most electricity and people classified as “Band E” (read: the most economically disinherited) get the least electricity is the most starkly state-sanctioned economic discrimination I have ever seen anywhere in the world. President Bola Tinubu should order that the bands be disbanded forthwith. This is embarrassing official idiocy.

The point isn’t even that so-called Band A electricity consumers don’t actually get the amount of electricity that their socio-economic status should guarantee them, according to the new state-sponsored economic apartheid that imposes discrimination on electricity consumers. The outrage is that the government would conceive of a program where a resource as indispensable to modern life as electricity is rationed on the basis of economic status.

Electricity is the cornerstone of development. It isn’t a privilege. It should be a human right. It should be accessible to everyone. It’s the driver of economic development, is indispensable to healthcare, is the backbone of education, supports modern agricultural practices, is fundamental to technological progress, powers social development, and enhances quality of life.

The government’s goal should be to generate and distribute “Band A” electricity for all consumers in Nigeria—like is done in other countries, including countries much less endowed than Nigeria.

As I pointed out in a previous column, the depth of Nigeria’s electricity problems didn’t become magnified in my consciousness until July 2009 when I visited my mother’s maternal relatives in the city of Parakou, the capital of Borgou State (or, as states are called there, “Department”) in Benin Republic. Throughout the one week I stayed in Parakou, Benin Republic’s third largest city with a little over a quarter of a million people, electricity didn’t blink for even a split second.

Except for the distinctive sights, sounds, and smells of the city, it felt like I was still in the United States. 

To be sure that the impressively continuous electricity we enjoyed wasn’t a fluke, I asked my mother’s first cousin (that would be my “first cousin once removed” in Standard English and my “uncle” in Nigerian English) in whose house we stayed to tell me the last time they lost power in the city or in the neighborhood.

He started to jog his memory and even enlisted the help of his wife because he thought I needed to know the exact day for record purposes. I told him not to bother, but I later learned from him that although power outages occur, often for maintenance, they are infrequent, relatively brief, and often announced ahead of time in the broadcast media.

This is particularly interesting because Benin Republic buys most of its electricity from Nigeria, although my cousin said that wasn’t true of Parakou. Most importantly, though, there was no invidious social differentiation of electricity consumers into “bands.” If there was, my relative in Parakou would be in “Band E” because he retired from the Beninese civil service on a modest rank.

Almost every Nigerian I know who has traveled outside Nigeria shares the same experience as mine. A former colleague of mine at the Presidential Villa in Abuja who traveled to Iran for weeks returned and told us he didn’t witness power outage for even a fraction of a second throughout his stay in the country, which caused him to insist that if Iran was a “Third World” country, Nigeria must be a “10th World” country.

And that leads me to the question: why has it been impossible to power Nigeria? Why does every other country on earth seem to be doing better than Nigeria in electricity generation and distribution? I think it’s because we have never had anyone with a clue to manage Nigeria’s power sector. Let’s look at some of the ministers of power we’ve had since 1999.

In 1999, the late Chief Bola Ige, who became the minister of power, promised to “turn stone to bread.” He was deploying a biblical metaphor to imply that he would make the seemingly impossible possible. Well, he didn’t have a stone to start with, so there was no bread. His legacy was darkness.

On November 28, 2012, the then Minister of State for Power, Hajia Zainab Kuchi, told South African investors that “evil spirits” were to blame for Nigeria’s interminable electricity troubles. “We must resolve to jointly exorcise the evil spirit behind this darkness and allow this nation take its pride of peace [sic] in the comity of nations [sic],” she said.

About two months later, her metaphysical explanation for Nigeria’s electricity difficulties got a professorial endorsement when, on January 23, 2013, Chinedu Nebo, a professor of engineering and former university vice chancellor, told the Nigerian senate that power outages were caused by “witches and demons” and that “If the President deploys me in the power sector, I believe that given my performance at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where I drove out the witches and demons, God will also give me the power to drive out the demons in the power sector.”

He got the job. But neither he nor Kuchi were able to exorcise the “evil spirits,” “demons,” and “witches” that they believed sucked the megawatts out of Nigeria’s power plants. Their legacy was more darkness.

Then on July 11, 2014, Babatunde Fashola said Nigeria’s electricity problems were political, even electoral. “The only way you and I will have electricity in this country,” he said, “is to vote out the PDP.”

Again, at the 7th Annual Bola Tinubu Colloquium on March 25, 2015, Fashola blamed “amateurs” for Nigeria’s power generation problems.  He infamously said, “Power generation is not rocket science; it is just a generator.  So just remember and imagine that your ‘I-better-pass-my-neighbour’ in one million times—its capacity but in one place. So, if you can make that size of one kilowatt, you can make a power turbine of one thousand megawatts…

“So, with all the billions of dollars that have been spent, the story is that we still live in darkness. Our government lies about it, but it is not because power is impossible. But to tell you very confidently that we do not have power because power is difficult to generate; we have darkness because we have incompetent people managing our economy. As one of my friends fondly calls them, our economy is being managed by amateurs.”

He was appointed the minister in charge of power a few months after this overconfident political diagnosis of Nigeria’s unending electricity woes. Within a few months of being in power, disappointed Nigerians nicknamed him the “minister of darkness,” and Buhari didn’t reappoint him to the ministry for a second term.

He was replaced by a man who didn’t know what his job was supposed to entail, who didn’t know he was the minister of power, who was so colorless and so uninspiring that no one knew him when he held sway, much less remember him after his tenure expired.

So, from 1999, we went from treating our electricity problem as one that could be resolved through Ige’s poetic and theological flourishes to thinking that Nebo’s and Kuchi’s metaphysical delusions provided the keys to unlocking it, to imagining that Fashola’s two-bit, evidence-free, exaggeratedly partisan outbursts were any good, to the unpretentious shallowness of Fashola’s successor. 

Now we have an Adebayo Adelabu, a completely clueless, unfeeling buffoon who is clearly out of his depth, as the minister of power. Here is a minister of power who is so hopelessly ignorant about power that he thought keeping freezers connected to electricity continuously was a waste of power that was peculiar to Nigeria and has championed the idiotic social stratification of electricity consumers. 

Now he says if Nigerians are not prepared to pay an arm and a leg for electricity, they should come to terms with perpetual darkness. What kind of responsible government official says that? 

This is especially tragic because everyone knows that electricity is the driving force of technology and innovation, not to mention basic creative comforts. Any country that can’t fix its electricity can’t participate in the increasingly digital economy of the 21st century and will be stuck in permanent developmental infancy.

Yet, in spite of the drag that poor electricity exerts on creativity and innovation, Nigeria’s youth have been some of the world's most high-flying digital creators and drivers. Imagine what Nigeria would be if it had a leadership that cared and knew how to fix its electricity crisis.

From May 16 to 17, over 2,000 of Africa’s business leaders, investors, policy makers and political leaders as well as their counterparts from around the world met in Kigali, Rwanda under the auspices of the Africa CEO Forum 2024 to discuss the continent’s development, opportunities and challenges. The Africa CEO Forum is the largest international meeting of the African private sector, and is typically two days of conferences, debates, panel discussions and high-level meetings dedicated to highlighting the driving role of the private sector in the development of the continent. Rwanda is hosting it for the second time since its maiden edition, held in Geneva, 10 years ago. Last year, it was held in Abidjan and next year, it is going to somewhere in North Africa. Nigeria has never hosted it, and that’s surprising. You can think of the Forum as our own equivalent of the World Economic Forum (WEF), which holds in Davos, Switzerland, every January. The 2024 CEO Forum in Kigali was the biggest since its inception, according to the Chief Executive of the Forum, Amir Ben Yahmed. The theme this year was ‘’At the Table or On the Menu? A Critical Moment to Shape a New Future for Africa.” President Paul Kagame and a few African Heads of States and Governments were there. In attendance were many notable Nigerian businesses and NGOs. Kagame gave a brief opening statement.

The phrase, ‘’At the Table or On the Menu’’ was popularised by the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Munich Security Conference last November. Responding to the moderator’s question concerning tensions in the US-China relations, Blinken had said ‘’if you are not at the table at the international systems, you’re going to be on the menu’’. Blinken had also used the same phrase in 2022 to describe relations between the two superpowers. But he did not invent this coinage. As far back as 1993, this phrase was used in an article in an American Middle East Affairs journal, describing the situation in Lebanon at that time. At a time that our continent seems to be making little progress in the global stage, it was therefore apt that the Africa CEO Forum 2024 adopted this same phrase as its theme. It was also the central point of discussions among panel members on the opening day of the summit. The panelists were Group CEO of MTN, Ralph Mupita; Regional VP for Africa, IFC, Sergio Pimenta; Access Holdings Chairman, Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede; Rwanda Minister of State in charge of Public Investments and Resource Mobilization, Jeanine Munyeshuli, and President of Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa, Sidi Ould Tah.

It was a very enriching and profound discussion on the experiences and future of our continent. Aig-Imoukhuede opened his contributions by acknowledging that the theme was quite poignant given that this year marks the 140th anniversary of the Berlin Conference. ‘’At the Berlin Conference, Africa was at the table, but that’s where they had us for breakfast, lunch and dinner,” he said, eliciting applause and laughter. “But Africa has come a long way since then. Today, there are many tables across the world in IMF/World Bank (finance), WHO (health), WTO (Trade), G20 (politics), etc, and it is important to note that Africans are CEOs of some international organisations in these areas,” he added. In as much as Africans are now at the table, he however wondered whether we are sitting on the right seats or low stools, eliciting another round of laughter and applause. The Access Holdings chairman elucidated further that Africans should create their own tables just like the Asians have done. ‘’Our big population, common markets and youths should give us a table for the future’’ he said. He noted that Africans have made considerable progress in finance, noting that foreign banks that have divested from the continent have been replaced by African banks.

He illustrated: ‘’If an African investor, for example, goes to the Eurobond market, he should be ready to be dictated to by the regulators and the operators in that market; and they necessarily don’t have your interest in mind. But if an African investor goes to an Afrobond market to raise capital, chances are that the market will be sympathetic to Africa’s needs and nuances, but the standards and regulations should not be lower than what you have in the Eurobonds markets.” He called for partnership between the public and private sectors in the continent and announced that Access Holdings and the Aig-Imoukhuede Foundation are launching a Super NGO which will provide funding and talent for transformational government initiatives that deliver much needed value. The Aig-Imoukhuede Foundation and Access Bank Group have pledged $300 million over the next 20 years. Access Bank has committed $200 million and the Aig-Inoukhuede Foundation committed $100 million.

The Africa-led Super NGO will be established in partnership with academics, experts and philanthropists across the globe who are committed to closing the gap between Africa and the rest of the world. The NGO will work with African governments to provide the funding, governance and talent He invited other businesses to join him in promoting the initiatives. The commitments, spread over 20 years, will fund African governments’ initiatives with proven potentials to transform national economic performance.

Said Aig-Imoukhuede: “African leaders cannot sit back and watch the 4th Industrial Revolution transform the rest of the world while leaving Africa falling further behind. We have to create our own ‘table’ by using technology to unlock the power of our youth, giving Africa a greater voice in the world. It’s today’s leaders who will determine whether or not we grab this opportunity.” The Africa CEO Forum and similar platforms provide ample opportunity for African businesses in general and Nigeria’s companies in particular to deploy the art of business diplomacy to their advantage and to the benefit of the continent. Just as Kigali event was kicking off, Roosevelt Ogbonna, Access Bank's CEO was speaking at Cannes International Film Festival on the importance of Nigeria's film industry and the roles of banks in funding the creativity industry.

Business diplomacy, according to specialists in that area, is the capacity to build and maintain strong relationships with several domestic and international stakeholders to shape and influence the environment and eventually create a favourable business environment and exploit new opportunities. It is an important business tool in today’s globalised markets, and its goal is to create and manage efficient networks of information that allow the company to influence the policy environments in their favour and predict future issues. This is why key African businesses and their partners have been the major sponsors of the CEO Forum, with the 2024 edition backed mainly by the MTN Group; IFC; Access Holdings; The Coronation Group and the Aig-Imoukhuede Foundation.

The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND),  has announced May 24 as official date for the opening of portal for student loan applications.

The Managing Director of NELFUND,  Mr Akintunde Sawyerr, disclosed this on Thursday  in a statement made available to newsmen in Abuja by the Fund’s Media and Public Relations Lead, Nasir Ayitogo.

Sawyerr said the opening of the portal marked a significant milestone in the commitment of President Bola Tinubu to foster accessible and inclusive education for all Nigerian students.

According to him, through the portal, students could now access loans to pursue their academic aspirations without financial constraints.

He added that the portal provides a user-friendly interface for students to submit their loan applications conveniently.

“We encourage all eligible students to take advantage of this opportunity to invest in their future and contribute to the growth and development of our nation,” he said.

Sawyerr urged students to access the portal on www.nelf.gov.ng to begin application.

[Newsguru]

Popular singer, Oritsefemi, has narrated how his estranged wife Nabila Fash, dealt with him during their marital crisis.

According to the singer, Fash invited about 20 of her female friends to their home to overpower and physically assault him.

In a recent interview, the ‘Double Wahala’ hitmaker stated that he has been unlucky with marriages, claiming that his first wife also dumped him after sponsoring her to Dubai.

“My wife [Nabila Fash] asked her friends to come and beat me up in my house. I said, ‘Look at me o; a whole me, lion na he women dey pursue.’ They were about 20. They dealt with me. I’m not lying,” he said.

Recall that Oritsefemi’s marriage to Nabila Fash hit the rocks in 2022, with Fash accusing the singer of incessant cheating.

In October 2022, Fash officially filed for divorce from Oritsefemi over infidelity and domestic violence.

[Newsguru]

Kwara State Police Command has arrested five health workers over alleged mysterious disappearance of umbilical cord and placenta of a newly born baby in Oke-Ero local government area.

It was gathered that the incident happened at the cottage hospital in Iloffa last Sunday.

The suspects, Daily Trust learnt, who are currently being detained in Ilorin after interrogation on Thursday include one Dr Ajibola, nurses Rukayat Adeloye, Aishat Awolusi, Peace Alabi and Toyin Adewunmi, a ward attendant.

Sources said it took efforts from elders of Odo-Owa community to prevent the restive youths from torching the hospital over the incident.

Speaking on the issue on Friday, the traumatised mother of the baby who teaches English language in Orofa High School,Odo-Owa, Mrs C.B Williams, said she raised the alarm after the doctor and nurses who delivered the baby failed to produce the placenta and umbilical cord.

“Some of their staff started telling me they’re sorry that there was a mistake. The attendant said she had thrown the placenta inside a pit but they could not find it suggesting a dog might have eaten it.

“That was When I flared up with some members of my church who were also present that it’s not possible that they just have to present the placenta”.

Mrs Williams’ father, Mr Rufus Sanya, said he suspected foul play.

“How could an umbilical cord and a placenta of a new baby be missing when we all know the implication?

“I urge the police to do a thorough investigation and unravel the mystery behind this disappearance.That is only when justice would be said to have been served and we would be at peace with ourselves,”he said.

Contacted on Friday, spokeswoman of police command, Ejire-Adeyemi Toun, confirmed the incident, adding that operatives have commenced a discreet investigation into the matter.

[DailyTrust]

For the first time this year, Nigeria’s money supply has experienced a significant drop, a development closely linked to the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) recent hike in interest rates.

Data from the apex bank reveal Money Supply (M2) dropped marginally to N92.3 trillion in March 2024 from a record N93.9 trillion in February. April data is also anticipated as the apex bank meets to deliberate ton the MPC.

This drop, albeit marginal will be received with relief by officials of the monetary policy committee who meet next week to deliberate on the next course of action for its hawkish interest rate policy.  The drop also reflects the intricate dynamics of monetary policy and its impact on the broader economy.

In the past two years, Nigeria has seen a substantial rise in money supply, driven by expansive monetary policies under the Buhari administration. For example, Money Supply (M2) has risen from N51.7 trillion to a peak of N93.9 trillion in February.

The Central Bank of Nigeria, led by Governor Godwin Emefiele, lent the government over N20 trillion through the controversial Ways and Means provision. Additionally, trillions were injected into the economy as intervention funds to stimulate growth and support various sectors.

Money supply, a critical economic indicator, refers to the total amount of monetary assets available in an economy at a specific time. It includes various forms of money, such as cash, demand deposits, and other types of bank deposits that are easily convertible to cash. Economists categorize money supply into different aggregates, primarily M1, M2, and M3, each representing different degrees of liquidity.

According to the latest data, the overall money supply decreased, driven by notable changes in its components. Specifically, quasi money, which includes savings deposits, time deposits, and other near-money assets, saw a significant drop.

Conversely, narrow money (or M1), which encompasses physical currency and demand deposits, showed an increase.

Key highlights from the data

• Money Supply (M2): Experienced a decrease from From N93.9 trillion to N92.3 trillion , reflecting the drop in quasi money despite the rise in narrow money.
• Quasi Money: Decreased from N63.69 trillion to N59.8 trillion, indicating a shift in the types of assets held by the public, likely influenced by higher interest rates.
• Demand Deposits: Increased from N26.8 trillion to N28.8 trillion, suggesting a preference for more liquid forms of money among depositors.
• Currency outside banks: Increased from N3.4 trillion to N3.6 trillion as more Nigerians moved towards cash following the end of the controversial new naira note policy of the apex bank.

Impact of Higher Interest Rates

The CBN’s decision to raise interest rates is a strategic move aimed at controlling inflation by making borrowing more expensive and encouraging saving.

• Higher interest rates typically lead to reduced consumer spending and lower investment by businesses due to the higher cost of credit.
• By tightening monetary policy, the CBN aims to tame inflation and stabilize the economy. However, this shift also highlights the delicate balance required in managing economic growth and controlling inflation.
• As the economy adjusts to these changes, careful monitoring of money supply aggregates will be essential in assessing the long-term impacts of the CBN’s policies.

This monetary tightening can lead to a contraction in the money supply as people and businesses shift their funds into higher-yielding savings accounts and fixed deposits, thus decreasing the more liquid forms of money in the economy.

 [Nairametrics]

A tank farm in Apapa, Lagos State, reportedly owned by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, has caught fire, according to the Lagos Fire Service.

Margaret Adeseye, Director/CEO of Lagos State Fire Service, explained that the fire stemmed from a spillage of petroleum products within the tank farm’s perimeter.

She emphasised collaborative efforts with multiple emergency responders in the oil and gas industry to mitigate the situation.

Despite the challenges, she reassured that emergency operations are effectively managed to prevent further escalation.

In addition, Amodu Shakiru, spokesperson of the fire service, said the emergency call came in at 11:27 a.m.

He stated that the Iganmu and Ajegunle fire stations promptly responded to the call to prevent the fire from spreading further.

Read also: Incessant tanker fire accidents highlight Nigeria’s poor safety measures

However, Olufemi Soneye, the Corporate Communications Officer at NNPCL, clarified that the fire outbreak did not occur at the NNPC depot.

According to Soneye, the fire outbreak happened at a pipeline belonging to HOGL Energy Limited (formerly known as Honeywell Oil and Gas Limited).

[Businessday]

The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Nyesom Wike, has said he is not distracted by the ongoing political crisis in Rivers State.

Naija News reports that Wike made this disclosure on Friday while inspecting some key projects ready for commissioning by President Bola Tinubu, starting from May 27 to mark his one-year in office.

There are several insinuations that Wike is distracted by the current political crisis in Rivers state and he is not focusing on his job as the FCT minister.

However, Wike said if he was distracted by the crisis, many projects ready for commissioning in FCT would not be possible.

He said: “I am not distracted as FCT minister. If I’m distracted, you will not see all these projects in FCT.”

Fubara Taunts Wike

Meanwhile, Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State has said his government has defeated its political detractors and enemies.

Fubara stated this on Thursday during a gathering with the national and state leadership of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) as they embarked on a solidarity walk to the Government House in Port Harcourt.

The governor said his enemies could not sleep well again after they failed to achieve their plans while celebrating his one year in office.

While thanking the IYC members, Fubara encouraged the Ijaw nation to participate in celebrating the liberation of the state, adding that there would not be any need to disrupt the peace.

He stressed that every true Rivers indigene is a liberator, expressing his joy at welcoming them on such a significant day to reaffirm their collective commitment to liberation.

[NaijaNews]