Electricity minister Saleh Mamman denies they are handing distribution over to Siemens

NIGERIA'S minister of state for power Saleh Mamman has denied that the federal government is planning to hand over the distribution of the nation's electricity to German engineering giant Siemens.

Currently, Nigeria suffers from epileptic power supply as the sector is plagued with companies that lack the capacity to deliver. At the moment, the nation only generates about 13,000MW of electricity of the 40,000MW required and even of this figure, only 3,000MW is currently being distributed, leading to most Nigerians having to provide their own electricity through the use of private generators.

Many of Nigeria's electricity distribution companies known as Discos, lack the capital to invest in equipment like transformers, meaning that several of them cannot deliver generated power allocated to them. Seeing the opportunity for major investment, Siemens was reported to have proposed that it be allowed to take charge of power generation, transmission and distribution across Nigeria.

However, Mr Mamman has denied this, saying there is no plan to transfer the nation’s electricity distribution to Siemens. His spokesman Aaron Artimas, said: “What I can tell you is that the government only signed a memorandum of understanding with the German company, Siemens on how to leverage generation with transmission and distribution."

Mr Mamman expressed regret that even when the distribution companies received 3,000MW, they short-changed the system by paying for only 1,000MW, adding that the federal government could no longer continue to subsidise their inefficiency. On July 22, last year, the federal government and Siemens signed a letter of agreement on the Nigeria Electrification Roadmap after President Muhammadu Buhari met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, on August 31, 2018 in Abuja to agree on cooperation.