Nigeria to privatise power sector

Nigeria's President Goodluck Johnathan has laid out plans to privatise most of the national electricity sector, in a bid to end the country's daily power cuts. In a speech from Lagos on Thursday, Johnathan called for a "revolution" in Nigeria's energy sector.

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The private sector will be crucial partners in Nigeria's "journey of national transformation", Johnathan said.

Under the new plans, Johnathan's government will privatise electricity generation and distribution, and make more natural gas available to fuel new plants.

The sell-off, which concerns six state-owned generation companies and 11 distribution companies, looks set to be one of Africa's biggest privatisations.

Meanwhile the state will continue to own the national grid, but private companies will manage it.

Johnathan also sought to address electricity workers' concerns, after employees of the state-owned Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) called a one-day strike on Wednesday in protest at the reforms.

The government will set aside money to fulfill wage promises and finance severance packages and pensions when privatisation takes effect, Johnathan promised.

His speech was welcomed by the business sector, which hopes that improved infrastructure will make Nigeria a more productive economic climate.

Government control of major industries is "one of the banes of Nigerian society", analyst Chuks Osuji of Opinion Research & Communications in Lagos told RFI.

"That type of entanglement causes a lot of mismanagement and a lot of corruption."

Despite being one of the world's biggest oil exporters, Nigeria has long struggled to meet its electricity demands. Black-outs are frequent and many people are forced to rely on expensive private generators for their power supply.

President Johnathan has made reforming the energy sector one of his key policies.