BPE to Partner HYPPADEC to Better Hydro-power Host Communities

BPE to Partner HYPPADEC to Better Hydro-power Host Communities

Ndubuisi Francis

The Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) has resolved to collaborate with the Hydroelectric Power Producing Areas Development Commission (HYPPADEC) in bettering the lot of host communities of hydro-power plants in the country.

The Director General of the BPE, Mr. Alex Okoh, who gave the pledge in Abuja on Wednesday, when members of the commission paid a courtesy visit to the Bureau, said the privatisation would ensure that operators of the hydro-power plants execute their corporate social responsibility (CSR) for the benefit of the host communities.

Okoh, who was represented by the Director, Energy at the Bureau, Mr. Yunana Malo, expressed delight at the inauguration of the commission by the federal government to resolve environmental, economic and social challenges of host communities of hydro-power plants.

On the request by the Commission for the payment of 10 per cent royalty accruals to it as enshrined in the law setting up HYPPADEC, Okoh said both agencies would look at possible ways to handle the issue, noting that all revenues generated by the BPE in the sale of public assets were usually transmitted to the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) of the federal government.

According to him, as a reform agency, the Bureau is under constant scrutiny by relevant federal government agencies.

Earlier, the Managing Director of HYPPADEC, Abubakar Sadiq Yelwa, had explained that the visit was to find ways to get the 10 per cent royalty statutorily enshrined in its statute so that the Commission could develop host communities where the hydro plants are located.

He said BPE, as the agency that supervised the concession of the hydro plants, it was necessary for the visit to mutually agree on the way forward on the royalty issue, as mere correspondences on the matter would not suffice.

Yelwa called for a tripartite meeting involving the BPE, HYPPADEC, and the generation companies (GenCos) to mutually agree on the way forward on the matter.

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