NASS, NERC to work on legal framework for protection of power sector investments 

The Chairman of Senate Committee on Power, Gabriel Suswam, said on Monday the National Assembly was working with the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to put in place a legal framework for the protection of investments in the power sector.

Suswam stated this when he led members of the committee on an oversight visit to NERC Headquarters in Abuja.

He said the NERC in 2005 put in place a Reform Sector Act to enable the government to privatise the electricity entity.

The committee chairman said: “We have gone beyond privatisation, there has to be an Electricity Act for the country that will touch on the issue of energy theft, how people will be sanctioned and those that bypass meters.

READ ALSO: Proposed electricity tariff increase will not affect the poor —NERC

“And it will also create that environment that gives potential investors assurance that their investments are protected.

“Beyond the Reform Act, issues have cropped up that needed to be addressed, so we need a legal framework that will put in place enabling environment for potential investors.

“To have a sense of protection and NERC is supporting us on this project.”

Suswan, a former governor of Benue State, appealed to NERC to halt the implementation of the tariff hike, saying NASS was not opposed to the proposed increase in electricity tariff, but the timing of the exercise.

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