Lawmakers Set to Probe N213bn Power Fund, Saraki

Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, has revealed plans by lawmakers to probe the disbursement of N213billion Power Sector Intervention Fund by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Reports say Saraki made the revelation in a statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Sanni Onogu, in Abuja today.
According to the statement, Saraki spoke during a special stakeholders’ meeting to proffer solutions to the worsening electricity generation in the country.
He said that the upper chamber would verify claims and counter claims of non-remittance of revenues between the Nigeria Bulk Electricity Trading Company (NBET), Electricity Distribution Companies (Discos) and Generation Companies (Gencos).
Saraki urged the Senate Committee on Power, Steel Development and Metallurgy to conduct a public hearing on these funds as well as on the declining electricity generation which currently stood at 3,000 megawatts.
He added that the public hearing would take a look at reasons behind the inability of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) to effectively supervise and audit the electricity generation and distribution companies.
He, however, decried what he described as “the poor electricity supply in Nigeria and the consequences of the negative development in the efforts to move Nigeria out of the present economic recession’’.
He appealed to stakeholders in the sector to work towards proffering solutions to the “imminent collapse of the electricity system in the country’’.