TCN Laments Over N637 Billion Funding Shortfall, Appeals For NASS Intervention

The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has appealed to the National Assembly for its intervention for adequate funding of its ongoing critical projects meant for efficient power transmission nationwide.

The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of TCN, Engr Abdulaziz Sule, made the appeal while making presentations on ongoing projects, achievements and challenges of the company to the members of the House of Representatives Committee on Power led by its Chairman, Hon. Victor Nwokolo who were on oversight visit to Corporate Headquarters of the TCN, Abuja on Monday.

He lamented that its 129 ongoing critical projects which requires a total finding sum of N1,791, 849, 390, 455. 49 has an outstanding funding shortfall of N637, 372, 812, 594. 89 there hindering its prompt completion and efficient service delivery.

Engr. Sule explained that most of the transmission infrastructure are outdated and requires replacement and expansion to meet growing demands of the increasing electricity consumers in the country.

Further, he requested for intervention of the House of Representatives Committee and the Federal government for a waiver of estimated total of over N600 billion being demanded by states as arrears of ground rates which dates back to more than 30 years ago.

He suggested to the legislature to make it a policy that wherever TCN infrastructure is sited, such lands will automatically become federal government owned land to avoid unnecessary conflict over right of way and payments of ground rates.

Apart from saying that there are a lot of uncompleted projects due to lack of funds to complete projects, he listed other challenges such as Right of way issues,
Payment of compensation for acquisition of transmission lines, Right of Way (RoW) for various projects across the country,
manual operations, aging equipment,
transmission infrastructure vandalization and financial issues due to non payment by Distribution Companies.

Other challenges the TCN Managing Director presented include: lack of modern tools like Helicopter and Drones for transmission lines surveillance, issues with Port Clearance, Long procurement Processes, No Spinning Reserve, inability of the Federal Ministry of Finance to pay its counterpart funding leading to delay in the implementation of the donor-funded projects since implementation is dependent on the release of the counterpart funds and the recent enforcement of VAT and Levy Charges on the offshore equipment for the projects hence causing a bottlenecks in the progress of projects.

Despite the challenges, Engr. Sule said TCN enumerated some of its achievements saying that it has strived to Expanded the grid by adding of new substations,
Reconductoring of old lines,
Rehabilitation of old substations;
Proactive Maintenance such as trace clearing, procuring spares etc.;
Improved System Stability and Reliability:
Reduced the frequency of system disturbances and collapses; Enhanced Safety in Substations and Control Rooms and improved Collaboration with stakeholders.

Responding, the Chairman of the House Committee on Power, Hon. Victor Nwokolo promised that based on the presentation, the members will articulate issues and come up with a motion in the House at plenary sessions.

He further advised TCN to commence now to present their funding demands to the budget office of the Federation to enable them to take into account the funding requirements of TCN in next year’s annual budget.