Minister of State for Power, Alhaji Mohammed Wakil says South African was now emulating the Nigerian power sector privatisation model in the transformation of its deteriorating energy sector.
He added that he was proud as a Nigerian that the reform almost completed by the federal government was what a great country on solid footing like South Africa is copying as its blueprint.
Addressing journalists in Abuja, last week, Wakil hinted that South Africa suffers serious crisis in its power sector, a situation, he said, has necessitated the country to draft a power sector privatisation bill which is presently before its parliament.
According to him, the crisis rocking the power sector of that country showed that the policies and programmes of President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration including the power reforms are durable.
“Nigeria has become a model for power sector reforms in Africa. A bill almost like our 2005 electricity sector reform act is in the work in the South African parliament. We must commend Mr. president for this”, the minister reiterated.
“When the PDP government started the reform, many Nigerians questioned the wisdom behind it. When President Jonathan launched the power sector reform roadmap in 2010, critics sounded cynical. Today, we have a completed reform and we are getting required results”, he declaared
Wakil, who noted however, that Nigeria has having teething problems concerning the reform said the federal government was addressing them and added that in no distant future, power supply would be a non-issue.
