Director-General, Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Benjamin Dikki, said power privatisation in the country had started yielding results with 18-hour uninterrupted power supply to consumers in Lagos.

BPE’s Head of Public Communications, Mr Chigbo Anichebe, said Dikki made the disclosure when members of Abuja Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (ABUCCIMA) visited the Bureau.

Dikki, it said, however stated that power supply around the country would have improved but for the shortage in gas supply to power generating plants.

He said that the new power owners had invested heavily to upgrade infrastructure so as to give Nigerians steady and uninterrupted power supply but restated that steady gas supply had remained an impediment.

While appealing to Nigerians to be patient with the new owners of the power assets, he said that the Federal Government was doing everything possible to solve the gas challenge.

He pointed out that the establishment of Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Debt Management Office (DMO) and National Pension Commission (PENCOM) represented government’s resolve to reform the economy.

The director-general affirmed that BPE would take advantage of platforms provided by credible organisations like ABUCCIMA to showcase its achievements.

According to him, the pension reform, for instance, has attracted over N4.2 trillion into the financial system which could be quadrupled in the next few years.

He appealed for the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) to open up the oil and gas sectors for job creation.

“I appeal to organisations like ABUCCIMA to prevail on the National Assembly to the pass the PIB with clear separation of the role of policy formulation, regulation and operation. This will open up the oil and gas sectors so that jobs will be created to take care of the country’s teeming unemployed population,” he said.