The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission has told power firms carved out of the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria to comply with the agreements they entered into with the Bureau of Public Enterprises or be sanctioned.

The General Manager, Legal, Licensing and Enforcement, NERC, Mrs. Olufunke Dinneh, told the firms this at the end of a training session for performance managers of operating companies in the Nigerian electricity supply industry.

Dinneh said the performance managers had the responsibility of also ensuring that the companies complied with industry regulations following a statement made available in Abuja by the Head, Public Affairs Department, NERC, Dr. Usman Arabi.

“You should no longer count yourselves among Nigerians who are lamenting the challenges in the power sector but you should brace to fix the sector,” she said.

According to her, the importance of complying with the privatisation agreements and regulatory directives is the reason why NERC insists that the electricity companies must have performance managers.

Dinneh said, “There should be effective monitoring of performance agreements and Key Performance Indicators. The commission, working with the BPE as well as other stakeholders and Nigerians, want explanation on compliance with the agreements and the KPIs signed by the private investors, and those of you at this training have a role to play in this.

“The regulator has the responsibility to ensure accountability within the electricity supply value chain. That is why the commission created standards and codes, and you are employed to ensure that your respective companies abide by those standards within the regulatory landscape in addition to the performance agreements signed by your management when they took over the erstwhile public utilities.”

She told the participants at the training that their failure to assist their respective management to play by the rules would attract the regulator’s sanctions, adding that firms in the power industry, irrespective of the ownership structure, must play by the rules.