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NDPHC, PHEDC Join Forces To Boost Power Supply In Calabar

Published

5 years ago

August 17, 2020

… Resolved Power Transmission Bottlenecks

Editor

Niger Delta Power Holding Company NDPHC and Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company PHEDC have concluded plans to boost power supply to customers in Calabar and its environs by December 2020.

The upgrade in supply from 45megawatts presently serving the metropolis and its environs will be achieved by evacuating an additional 100 megawatts of electricity from the 625 megawatts capacity power plant at Ikot Nyong in Odukpani LGA to make it 145 megawatts in a bid to make the City smarter and boost industrialization in the state.

This was made disclosed during the visit of the Minister of State for Power, Mr. Goddy Jedy Agba on a supervising tour of the Power plant at Ikot Nyong.

The Managing Director of the Niger Delta Power Holding Company NDPHC, Chiedu Ugbo, and his counterpart in the PHEDC, Henry Ajagbawa who was represented by his deputy, Kingsley Achife in the company led the Minister of State on a tour of the plant.

They revealed that the planned evacuation of the 100 megawatts to serve customers in Calabar and its environs will require the improvement of the power lines in the area as well as getting smart meters across to every customer in the metropolis and beyond.

Speaking at the Plant, the Minister of State for Power said he was satisfied with what he has seen on the ground and as a government, his office has been working with the NDPHC and PHEDC to achieve the ultimate goal of having a steady power supply to homes which will not only boost the standard of living but lead to massive growth and development as it directly supports industrialization.

According to Agba: “With what I have seen, everything seems to be working well, there is gas and the machines are working well and there is hope at the end of the tunnel.

But what we want to see is that by the end of this year there should be a more steady and reliable supply of light in Calabar.’ “Another good thing is that the federal government has approved that smart meters should be brought into the country free of any charge of a tariff.

For years meters had been in the port because of a tariff. “Now the government has deregularise that and the meters are brought for free.

So in a short while, people will have meters to know what they consume and pay for the same. In six months from now, there should be a noticeable improvement both in supply and in metering.

The government is committed to its duty for the provision of social services and we want to see this go through”, the Minister said.

Also speaking, the Managing Director of PHEDC represented by his deputy, Kingsley Achife, explained that the company has signed a PPA (Power Purchase Agreement) with the Niger Delta Electricity Holding Company to take as much as 100 megawatts from the plant to service the customers in Calabar and its environs.

In his words:” Right now we are working on the various networks bottlenecks along the supply lines to ensure that customers in Calabar get a better experience in terms of power supply. “we are looking at the next six months.

In fact, by the end of the year, we should be able to achieve the first phase, we want to make Calabar a smart city.

“One of the messages we want to get out there is that the power business requires money to operate and we hope that people will pay their bills and not shortchange the companies and hence short change all of us as Nigerians. Metering is part of the project and we are targeting 100% metering.”

The Managing Director of the Niger Delta Power Holding Company, NDPHC, Chiedu Ugbo noted that the power plant at Ikot Nyong is functioning at full capacity and it has been sending out power to the National grid. “Right now out of the 625 megawatts we are doing about 200.

That is because the pipeline is being maintained by both ACCU Gas and the NDPHC. “We are doing what is called pigging – a routine periodic cleaning of the gas pipeline.

So that all impurities along the lines can be removed and pure gas can be gotten into the turbines,” he said.

He stated that the Power plant is functioning optimally and the rates are low in terms of cost that goes to the end-user adding that the cost won’t be much for the customers at the end of the day because it was a win-win situation for all both investors and customers.

Culled from AljazirahNigeria

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Business

Tax Reform Bills: The Verdict of Nigerians

Published

2 weeks ago

March 6, 2025

The Gleamer

Ismaila Ahmad Abdullahi Ph.D

The public hearings conducted recently by the two Chambers of the National Assembly have elicited positive responses from a broad spectrum of Nigerians, cutting across regional interest groups, government agencies, civil society groups, concerned individuals, the academia, and Labour Unions, among diverse others. Contrary to a few dissensions hitherto expressed in the media, almost all the stakeholders who spoke during the week-long sessions were unanimous in their declaration that the hallowed Chambers should pass the tax reform bills after a clean-up of the grey areas.

The public hearings were auspicious for all Nigerians desirous of economic growth and fiscal responsibility. They were also a watershed moment for the Federal Inland Revenue Service, which had been upbeat about the tax reforms. Indeed, the public hearings had rekindled hope in the tenets of democracy that guarantee freedom of expression and equitable space for cross-fertilisation of ideas. Without gainsaying the fact, the tax reform bills have been unarguably about the most thought-provoking issues in Nigeria today, drawing variegated perspectives and commentaries from even unlikely quarters such as the faith-based leaders, student bodies, and trade unions, which speaks much about the importance of the bills.

In the build-up to the public hearings, not many people believed that the bills would make it to the second reading, much less the public hearings. Even the Northern stakeholders who seemed unlikely to support the passage of the bills have softened their stance and have given valuable suggestions that would enrich the substance of the bills. The Arewa Consultative Forum came to the public hearings well-prepared with a printed booklet that addressed their concerns. It concluded with an advisory that the bills should be “Well planned, properly communicated, strategically implemented and ample dialogue and political consensus allowed for the reforms to be accepted.”

The concerns of ACF ranged from the composition of the proposed Nigeria Revenue Service Board as contained in Part 111, Section 7 of the bill, the unlimited Presidential power to exempt/wave tax payment as proposed in Section 75(1) of the bill, the family income or inheritance tax as contained in Part 1, Section 4(3) of the bill, to the issues around development levy and VAT. On the development levy, the ACF stated that unless the Federal Government is considering budgetary funding for TETFUND, NASENI and NITDA, it does not see the “wisdom behind the plan to replace (them) with NELFUND”.

The position of the North was equally reinforced by the Supreme Council for Shariah in Nigeria, Northern Elders Forum, Kano State Government, Professor Auwalu Yadudu, and the FCT Imams. Like the ACF, these stakeholders lent their respective voices to the Section on the Inheritance Tax in Part 1 of the bill and the use of the term ‘ecclesiastical’, which, in their views, undermines certain religious rights and beliefs. The Kano State Government, represented by Mahmud Sagagi, affirmed that “we support tax modernisation” but cautioned that “we must ensure that this process does not come at the expense of states’ constitutional rights and economic stability”. Professor Auwalu Yadudu, a constitutional law professor, drew attention to the use of the ‘supremacy clause’ and cautioned that the repeated use of “notwithstanding” in the bills would undermine the supremacy of the Nigerian constitution if passed as such.

Other stakeholders that made contributions at the sessions included the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas, Fiscal Responsibility Commission, Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission, Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria, Nigeria Customs Service, and a host of others. While most of their concerns bordered on technical issues requiring fine-tuning, they were unanimous in their support for the bills. They aligned with the position of the Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, Zacch Adedeji, Ph.D. and the Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, Mr Taiwo Oyedele, which is that the extant tax laws and fiscal regulations are obsolete necessitating reforms aimed at creating a fair and equitable tax and fiscal space to grow Nigeria’s economy.

In one of the sessions, Dr Zaach Adedeji expounded on the criss-cross of trade activities in the Free Trade Zone whereby companies misuse tax waivers as exporters to sell their goods or services in the Customs Area at an amount usually less than the price the operators in the Customs Area who pay VAT and other taxes sell theirs thereby disrupting business transactions. This way, the operators in the Free Trade Zone shortchange the government in paying their due taxes by circumventing extant regulations, which are inimical to the economy’s growth.

Overall, the presentations were forthright, foresighted, and helpful in elucidating the issues contained in the bills. According to the statistics read out at the end of the hearings at the Senate, 75 stakeholders were invited, 65 made submissions, and 61 made presentations. At the House of Representatives 53 stakeholders made presentations. By all means, this is a fair representation. Given the presentations, it is evident that the National Assembly has gathered enough materials to guide its deliberations on the bills. As we look forward to the passage of the bills, we commend the leadership of the National Assembly for their unwavering commitment to making the bills see the light of the day.

Abdullahi is the Director of the Communications and Liaison Department, FIRS.

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