Uche Cecil Izuora
Oriental Renaissance, a non-Government Organization (NGO), has appraised the level of business development given the efficiency of electricity supply and regulatory reforms by Geometric Power and Abia State Electricity Regulatory Commission (ASERA).
The outcome of the independent appraisal gave a positive public verdict on the facilities and operations of the Geometric Power Ltd, Nigeria’s foremost power integrated group, after a recent visit, the newly established ASERA that has inspired public confidence.
This assessment was in a response of recent reports quoting the ASERA leadership in the last few days as describing Aba Power, a member of the Geometric Power Group, as providing the standards by which the other 11 electricity distribution companies (DisCos) in Nigeria will now be measured.
The ASERA delegation to Geometric Power was led by the commission’s Executive Chairman, Engr Emeka Onyegbule, the Executive Director in charge of Legal and Regulatory Matters, Iguwo Ukwu, and the Executive Director of Engineering and Technical Affairs, Iheanyi Weze.
“By making its positive evaluation public”, said Oriental Renaissance in a press statement signed by its president, Dr Richard Ogbonna, and the secretary, Barrister Uche Nwosu, “the ASERA leadership has shown that it understands the duties of a regulator and how to promote businesses in their various sectors in the modern world”.
The group said in the past many Nigerian regulatory Agencies were preoccupied with punishing businesses and even dramatizing the punishments before the media.
“They hardly did anything to encourage organizations doing the right thing”, stated the NGO, noting that one of the exceptions was the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) under the leadership of the late Professor Dora Akunyili.
“While Akunyili’s NAFDAC disciplined drug and food counterfeit manufacturers and distributors, the agency never failed to promote compliant manufacturing organizations like the Nigerian Breweries plc, May and Baker, Nemeith Pharmaceuticals plc, and numerous importers.
“That’s why on her 50th birthday in 2014, these operators in the food and drug sector led the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria and numerous others to organize for Professor Akunyili the biggest birthday party ever held in Nigeria’s history for any individual. It was a well-deserved party held in an open place in Lagos to celebrate excellence in public service”.
The group said that by publicly sharing its positive evaluation of Geometric Power’s impressive record in electricity generation and distribution, the “Abia State Electricity Regulatory Commission has shown it’s on the same path as Akunyili’s NAFDAC in promoting public interests.
“Let it be stated for the umpteenth time that regulatory bodies are set up principally to promote businesses in various sectors, and not to harm them.
“Regulators protect the interests of all stakeholders like the consumers, the government, and the businesses themselves.
“It is, therefore, odd that Nigeria’s regulators were mostly concerned with punishments”.
While urging regulators not to overlook infractions by any player, it remarked that ASERA “appears to validate the claim by Governor Alex Otti that Abia is ready for business, hence the determination by global brands like Marriott and Radisson hotel chains to establish big presences in Aba and elsewhere in the state, to say nothing about the multibillion-naira Enyimba Economic City fashioned after Chinese cities like Shanghai.
“Constant and quality electricity in the nine local government areas (LGAS) in the Aba Ring-fenced Area is truly a game changer”.