Posted by by Everest Amaefule and Louis Ibah, Abuja on
The National Electric Power Authority has begun moves to secure a new transmission licence from the Nigerian Communications Commission.
The National Electric Power Authority has begun moves to secure a new transmission licence from the Nigerian Communications Commission.
Sources at NEPA confirmed to our correspondents on Wednesday that the corporation's fresh quest to get a new licence from NCC.
They said the licence had become imperative in order to effectively harness NEPA's grid infrastructure which runs across the nation.
In 2001, NEPA had in alliance with Eskom Enterprises of South Africa secured a long distance carrier licence from NCC and floated a joint-venture company, Nepskom Nigeria Limited, to carry telecoms signals through the national power grid.
The JV deal, however, collapsed following disagreements between Eskom and NEPA on levels of financial commitments from each of the companies.
This led to the inability of the joint venture to utilise the licence more than three years after it was issued before it was finally withdrawn by NCC which cited non-performance as reason for its action.
NEPA Managing Director, Mr. Joseph Makoju, had at a London conference in September, indicated that the utility firm was looking for a partner that would invest its money while NEPA's contribution would be its grid infrastructure.
Already, NEPA is in the final stage of evaluating companies that responded to its advertisement for Expression of Interest for partnering with it on the project.
It was learnt that a new partner would emerge after the exercise in the next two weeks after which a new joint venture company would be incorporated.
Transmission infrastructure has been poor in the country with telecom operators often depending on satellite to carry their long distance traffic across the country.
First national carrier, the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited does not have sufficient capacity across the country while Globacom, the second national operator, is yet to roll out its carrier network.