konknaijaboy | On 24, Jan 2014

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, has said that the power sector local content regulation will become law in the first quarter of this year.

Speaking at a session which held at Chatham House, London, chaired by Peter Callaghan of Commonwealth Business Council, Chairman of NERC, Dr. Sam Amadi, who was lead speaker at the event organised by Chatham House, UK, pointed out that the power sector local content law in this early stage of the transition, was intended to avoid the mistakes made in the oil and gas sector which was still dominated by expatriates 50 years after.

“We have a local content regulation that by February should become law, we don’t want what happened in the oil and gas sector where after 50 years Nigeria is still importing technology,” Amadi said.

“We have come up with a local content regulation that provides a framework for every company to begin to localise both technology, and services.

“For example 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.”

Amadi also told the gathering that power supply was 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.