Among other reforms in Nigeria’s power sector, a new law will be enacted in the first quarter of the year to ensure increased proliferation of local technology and service providers in the sector, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Chairman, Dr. Sam Amadi says.

At a session chaired by Peter Callaghan of the Commonwealth Business Council, Dr. Amadi said the country is pushing the local content policy “that should become law by February”, to prevent the kind of underdevelopment experienced in its oil and gas sector where after 50 years, is still dependent on imported technology and dominated by expatriates. 

The NERC has developed a local content framework for companies in the power sector to increase participation of local technology and services in their operations, he said, adding that  “a meter provider should within the next five years set up a factory in Nigeria. This is to ensure that the spill off from electricity reform goes to enhance the economy of the nation.”

During the session, Amadi also revealed that power supply is expected to hit 7,000MW by the end of this year as increased capacities were expected from the NIPPs coming on stream, while generation benchmark was set at 20,000MW by 2017.

He argued that the early passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) was critical to achieving the set targets.

“The PIB is critical to us because the constraint of the sector now is gas to power and except you have a very intelligible, practical and commercial framework over gas in Nigeria you might not have sustainable solution to the crisis,” he said.