Canadian company Manitoba Hydro International has signed an agreement with the Bureau of Public Enterprise for the management of Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) today (Monday 23 July, 2012).
The company will start management of the company on Monday, July 30.
Director General of the Bureau for Public Enterprise, Bolanle Onagoruwa said one of the key objectives of the agreement is to stabilize the national grid and reduce electricity losses during transmission.
TCN is one of the successor companies created from the unbundling of the power holding company of Nigeria and will now be managed by manitoba hydro for three years at a cost of 23 million dollars.
While electricity generation and distribution will be fully privatized, government remains in charge of transmission though it will be managed by the private sector for improved output.The move to privatize the TCN has however has been opposed by electricity workers who are worried about their job security and severance package.
To quell the fears of the workers, Minister of Power, Barth Nnaji said the Canadian company is resuming with only eight of its staff with Nigerian workers expected to understudy their operations
Manitoba, whose financial bid for the management of TCN was opened on April 3, had emerged the sole bidder after the second firm in the race, Power Grid of India, failed to meet the technical requirement.
