TheCable

Usman Mohammed, managing director of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), says the federal government cannot provide free electricity to Nigerians.

The TCN is owned by the federal government, while the distribution and generation sub-sectors are controlled by private investors.

The DisCos had announced that they were working with the federal government to provide free two-month electricity as palliatives to cushion the effect of the coronavirus pandemic on citizens.

Speaking on Thursday in Abuja, Usman said the proposal is mere propaganda.

“There is this information that went round that power is going to be free. I don’t know where that information came from,” the TCN chief said.

“But I can tell you that there is nothing like power is going to be free because the federal government cannot make power free. The federal government does not own the power.

“In the electricity industry, apart from transmission, which is just the transporter, all the other chains do not belong to the federal government. So, I cannot understand how somebody will concoct that information.

“But these are some of the people involved in propaganda who brand information that is very unnecessary, to be honest.

“I think at this stage what we need to do is to sustainably supply electricity and that is what we are doing.”

Sale Mamman, minister or power, had said the the government was concerned about how the proposal could be implemented to benefit the poorest and most vulnerable Nigerians.