FG explains delay in payment of disengaged staff of PHCN

The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Power, Godknows Igali, yesterday,
explained that the delay in payment of the entitlements of disengaged
staff of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, was to ensure
that no mistakes were made.
In an interview with newsmen after a meeting with Vice President
Namadi Sambo at the Presidential Villa, Igali said the delay not
withstanding, remarkable progress has been achieved in the
privatisation of the disbundled PHCN.
According to him, all issues relating to labour and others would be
resolved before the handover and takeover, adding that "There is
progress in the handing over of the 10 distribution companies and four
generating companies, we are in the last stages. A formal ceremony
will take place to hand over the documents to the new owners.
"There will be no physical handover until the end of this year. We are
starting with handing over of the documents, the protocol ceremony for
Mr. President to preside over after which, we have one month to
undertake cropping issues, for example labour.
"We are making very good progress to ensure that all workers are paid.
When you are dealing with paying accounts of workers, about 40,000
people, you have to be careful because it is not something you rush
into.
"So, we think that when the hand over of the documents is done, we
still have another one month to ensure that we look into claims and so
on before the final physical take off."
Igali said the meeting with Sambo was a periodic review of progress on
work on the power plants and the need to deal with issues pertaining
to ensuring that when the project eventually comes on stream, there
would be supply of gas.
He said the implementation of the present administration's power
masterplan was encouraging, adding that Nigerians should be
optimistic.
"All things are going on very well. Let's be optimistic. The other
sectors that the private sector took over, there is an exponential
change in the sector. We saw it in telecommunication. You all were
here when it takes a day before you make a call before private sector
took over. But today, Nigerians have access to telephones.
"In the banking sector, when you go to banks, you queue up for almost
a whole day taking a tally to wait. Today, you can stay in your office
and perform your banking transactions because the private sector took
over.
"In the power sector, the government has gone to the private sector
and they have shown strong and robust commitment to this country.
Despite the fact that we still have power outages, the private sector
have shown robust commitment that they are committed to working
together with the government."
"Everybody around the world said that it will not work, that in
Nigeria nobody buy assets. But there are Nigerian businessmen, bankers
teamed up with people to buy these assets and they want to bring in
the dynamism, the effectiveness of the private sector.
"Let's give them a chance and see how they are going to transform the
power sector, let us be optimistic and hopeful. So far we have done
well with the process, We have been transparent and now we are in the
last point of handing over to the private sector."
"In the short term, there will be appreciable result and when we get
to the medium, the country will be better for it," the permanent
secretary added.