House of Representatives Committee on Power, has barred the Transmission Company of Nigeria, (TCN), from embarking on new projects in 2021.
Chairman of the Committee, Alh Magaji Da’u, gave the instruction when officials of the TCN appeared before the committee to defend the 2021 budget at the National Assembly complex Abuja.
Alh Magaji Da’u said the committee would only appropriate money in the 2021 budget for projects listed in 2020 budget but were not executed in the interest of continuity.
He lauded the effort of the Transmission Company for improving from 3000MW to 5000MW.
Managing Director of the TCN, Alh Sulaiman Ahmad Abdul’azi told the committee that the agency was unable to execute the projects in 2020 due to insecurity, vandalism and Covid 19, as well as inability to process funds.
He said there were 119 ongoing projects captured in the 2020 budget, and only 14 new projects proposed in the 2021 budget.
Alhaji Sulaiman Ahmad maintained that out of the N6bn appropriated for the Company in 2020, only N3billion was released which he described as insufficient and resulted to poor performance.
RN