The Chairman, Senate Committee on Power, Senator Gabriel Suswan has assured Nigerians and critical stakeholders in the power sector that the bill being considered by the National Assembly to amend the Electricity Act, will instill sanity in the sector when passed.
Suswan said this when his panel visited the Nigerian Electricity Management Services Agency on Tuesday, to carry out oversight functions.
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NEMSA is a Federal Government agency saddled with the responsibilities of enforcing technical standards and regulations in the power sector through inspection, testing and certification of electrical equipment and products.
The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of NEMSA, Peter Ewesor, however complained to the Senate panel that some electricity distribution companies were still carrying out some responsibilities placed on his agency by the Act that established it.
He said, “We are statutorily established to carry out inspection, testing and certification of all categories of electrical installations.
“We are also to inspect electrical installations in factories, public places and hazardous locations and we are also empowered to investigate electrical accidents and electrocutions.
“Inspection and certification of electric concrete poles and monitoring of existing networks are also part of our statutory responsibilities.
“We discovered that some Discos are also carrying out some of our assigned roles claiming that the Act that set them up also gave them powers to play those roles.”
Part of Ewesor’s complaints to the Senate panel was that his office had received some information about certain Discos which procured meters and distributed them without recourse to NEMSA for proper testing before deployment.
In reaction to the concerns raised by NEMSA, the chairman of the Senate panel said all the infractions going on in the sector would be checked when the Electricity Act has been passed federal parliament.
Suswan said the parliament have initiated a bill to amend the Electricity Act for the country. He opined that proposed legislation will take care of most of the infractions that go unpunished in the sector most of the time.
Suswan affirmed that NEMSA had a lot of responsibilities to carry out in the power sector but unfortunately, they are not being properly funded.
