Poor Supply: Group Demands Revocation of Discos’ Licences

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja 

A group, the Nigeria Youth Forum (NYF) has called on President Bola Tinubu to revoke the licences of underperforming electricity distribution companies (Discos) and invite credible investors with the technical capacity and financial credibility to rescue the country’s ailing power sector.

This call comes amid growing public dissatisfaction over the persistent inefficiencies in Nigeria’s electricity supply and the widely criticised privatisation model that, according to stakeholders, has failed to deliver value for money to Nigerians.

In a press statement released in Abuja, the National President of NYF, Toriah Filani, expressed  concern over the sector’s dismal output,  noting that the total electricity supplied to Nigeria’s population of over 200 million people is significantly lower than the power supply allocated to a single international airport in Europe.

Filani said: “Compare the Amsterdam International Airport with Nigeria as a whole. The power available at that airport alone surpasses Nigeria’s entire national grid output.

“This reflects poorly on our leadership and infrastructure planning. When you also look at Jeddah International Airport and compare it to the Nigerian situation, you cannot help but feel disheartened. Nigeria claims to be the giant of Africa, yet its power generation capacity tells a different story.”

He further stated that although Nigeria currently generates about 7,000 megawatts of electricity, only about 5,000 megawatts can be distributed due to obsolete infrastructure and the failure of Discos to invest in essential distribution materials. This bottleneck, according to the Forum, continues to cripple the nation’s power delivery system and frustrates economic growth.