AT last, the Delta State Electricity Power Sector Law 2024 has come into effect, throwing open investment opportunities in power generation, transmission and distribution in thestate. Having passed the third reading on the floor of the House of Assembly in April this year, it was assented to, shortly by the state Governor, Rt Hon Sheriff Oborevwori, ensuring the domestication of the Nigerian Electricity Law 2023, which decentralized electricity infrastructure and effectively placing it on the concurrent list.
It has been an outpour of public positive emotion since the enactment of the game changing piece of legislation. We join millions of Delta State people to celebrate the state legislators and the governor for the enactment of the law, which actually had been the yearning of the people. The people had been so disappointed by the dismal performance of the national electricity agency, which hitherto had monopolized the supply of power to citizens, and had instead called on government to find solution to the challenge.
Under the old order, the national electricity monopoly, split into various electricity distribution companies, made life miserable for both corporate and private consumers because of epileptic supply of the product. Even government establishments wept over lack of electricity to perform their duties. Huge corporations and micro, small, and medium enterprises that depend on the national grid for power supply resorted to powering their organizations with generators at great costs following the failure of the former.
Lately, consumers have been investing in other sources of energy like solar power to take care of their energy needs, at corporate and domestic levels. But truth be told, supply from the latter sources may not be as strong as supply from the national grid, which was supposed to be a cheaper source of energy especially for the heavy industries. As at the time of birthing the Delta State Electricity law, the supply from the national grid was put at less than 5,000 mw for a population of more than 220million people.
Poor energy supply across the country had been a huge impediment to the nation’s economic growth. In Delta State in particular, lack of electricity has crippled the promising economic trajectory of the entire area. It has led to the collapse of critical businesses, forcing some to be producing at less than half of their installed capacity, and made almost impossible for new ones to be started. This affects all facets of the economic system including but not limited to manufacturing, agriculture, mining and the service sector.
Unfortunately, this has further triggered unprecedented increase in unemployment, poverty and hunger. It is also linked to the rising levels of crime, insecurity and various shades of anti-social behaviours like prostitution, drug abuse, gambling and mental health conditions. Some innocent families are known to have broken up on account of the enumerated ills.
It’s against the backdrop of the humongous negative impact of paucity of electricity supply to Delta State that we wholeheartedly welcome the state energy legislation. It’s a bold step in the right direction. We believe it will help to address the numerous economic plus social ills linked to the outrageous power supply in the state. We join the Governor to implore investors to take advantage of the law to embark on building independent power plants to serve certain mega cities and areas.
But most importantly, government should engage interested investors on a public private partnership to build an electricity corporation befitting of the state, the type the Abia State government has done. The multiplier effects of the above would be far reaching. It could trigger some sort of economic revolution that could see the growth and development of big, medium, small and micro business organizations that could jointly provide jobs for millions of people, raise the internally generated revenue of the state, add greater value to the nation’s gross domestic product and heal the state of the gross anti-social tendencies.
We expect that in the shortest possible time, investors and government would begin to respond to the invitation. For now, a massive enlightenment campaign should be mounted to inform and educate the public on the importance of the new law that we believe would be a game changer in the affairs of the state.
