Chairman, Presidential Task Force on Power, Mr Beks Dagogo-Jack, on Wednesday said the Federal Government would complete the payment of all outstanding entitlements of Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) workers by December.
Dagogo-Jack, speaking at a Power Investors’ Summit organised by the EnergyNet Ltd. in partnership with Nextier Capital in Lagos, said that all other labour issues would be addressed.
“We have an agreement with the PHCN workers unions and we have almost completed the payment, but they will all be settled before January 1, 2014 deadline,” he said. The taskforce chairman said that the Federal Government only presented certificates to the investors on Monday.
According to him, the physical and structural aspect will be handed over before the end of 2013.
Dagogo-Jack said the desire of the stakeholders was that between now and December there should be a transition period in the management of the industry.
He said that the transition period would enable investors to make necessary adjustments.
The chairman said that it would also provide avenue for them to test run the market so that they would know where they were heading to.
“In the transition setting, it gives you an opportunity to test where you are heading to so that when you get there you cannot go wrong,” he said. The task force chairman said that most of the contracts in the power sector would be completed between now and December. “All the contracts will be put in place and other things will be tidied up within this period,” Dagogo-Jack said.
President Goodluck Jonathan on Monday handed over certificates and licence to buyers of successor companies of PHCN.
The gesture signalled government’s disengagement from the management of the plants, but will continue to oversee the transmission network in the interim.
Some disengaged workers of PHCN, had on Monday, staged protests over non-payment of their terminal benefits before handing over to the new investors.
