Kyari, Elumelu tap electricity generation as key driver of Nigeria’s industrialisation future
…As FG moves to present bill to end Ways and Means
The Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd.), Mr. Mele Kyari and Chairman of Heirs Holdings, Mr Tony Elumelu have tapped electricity generation as a key driver of Nigeria’s industrialisation drive.
Elumelu spoke while delivering a keynote address at the inaugural Public Wealth Management Conference organized by the Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI) in Abuja yesterday.
Delivering a keynote address, Elumelu narrated thus: “In 2010, following my retirement as the CEO of UBA, and in looking for new opportunities and ventures, the Heirs Holdings Group, my family’s investment firm acquired Transcorp Plc.”
“At the time, Transcorp was formed to lead the industrialisation of Nigeria.The only asset Transcorp Group had back then was this hotel in which we are all gathered today.
“Today, Transcorp plays in the hospitality, power (both in generation and distribution) and in the oil & gas sectors.
“In Power, we acquired the 972MW gas-fired Ughelli Power Plant and ramped up its generation from 160MW to 701MW within four years of taking over the plant.
“Our Ughelli Power Plant is the first privatised Power Company to be discharged from post- privatisation monitoring having surpassed all set targets by the BPE and the National Council on Privatisation.
“Transcorp Hotels has also been issued a Certificate of Discharge by the National Council on Privatisation.
“We are confident that once we fix the issues of gas supply in Nigeria, we will be able to generate enough electricity to significantly power our country’s industrialisation,” he said.
Elumelu went on further to admonish the MOFI management to assemble the best in the industry who possess a turnaround mindset to transform the state assets and set performance targets for them.
He added that MOFI must build a strong governance structure including a strong board with seasoned private sector professionals and an empowered executive management team.
Elumelu also recommended bringing a private sector mindset to the stewardship of public assets.
“There is no rush to see immediate profits; we must have that mindset if we are to fully unlock the value contained within these state-owned assets.
“First set the strategic intent, prepare the milestones, know how you will be judged, and then execute, execute, execute – with discipline and always with that strategic intent in focus,” Elumelu remarked.
Delivering a presentation at the conference, NNPC Ltd GCEO, Mele Kolo Kyari noted that all other wealth-creating activities, such as agriculture; rely heavily on one form of energy or the other to thrive.
He emphasised that no public wealth creation endeavour can achieve any meaningful success without energy security.
“If you don’t have energy, you don’t have agriculture. You can do all the agriculture, but you can’t take it to the market, you may not be able to preserve it, you can’t even export it. So, all those indices are clearly connected to the ability to create energy.”
He disclosed that Nigeria has a huge energy deficit, with about 70 percent of the population lacking access to clean cooking fuel and over 50 percent lacking access to electricity.
He listed some of the impediments to the achievement of energy security in Nigeria, to include lack of investment in the energy sector due to uncertainty in the business environment and multiple taxation, adding that in the last 10 years, less than 3 percent of the total investment flow into Africa came into Nigeria.
He, however, assured that NNPC Ltd. was working hard to lay the foundation for sustainable wealth creation by filling the energy deficit gap, stressing that the company’s growth trajectory from a loss position of N803 billion in 2018 to N2.5 trillion in 2022 was a testimony to the abundant potential of NNPC Ltd. to lead the process of wealth creation in the country.
He emphasised that despite the challenges, NNPC Ltd. is still the highest tax-paying corporate entity in Nigeria.
Delivering his remarks, Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Mr Wale Edun disclosed that a bill will soon be presented to the National Assembly that will authorise the removal of all taxes and levies that constitute nuisance from the country’s tax system as a measure to wean itself from future Ways and Means indebtedness.
Edun noted that the government will pursue policies that will allow it to harvest revenue in real-time from government-owned enterprises and Corporate entities.
He said, “We have to stem liquidity. The Central Bank has led the way in pointing out that the ways and means have to be tailed down and eliminated and that is what we agree with.
“We are going in that direction, there was an inherited amount of N22.7 trn in backlogs. We are auditing it and it is like when I am ready to pay a loan from a bank and I ask for an audit before finding the agreed sum to pay.
“But apart from that, how do you get your ways and means down? We have to get revenues up and expenditure reduced as much as possible,” he said.
