UK Aid funds energy privatisation in Nigeria

http://www.epsu.org/a/11254  As part of a £100m project run by consultants Adam Smith International the UK has used an estimated £50m of aid money to support energy sector privatisation in Nigeria. Although the process is yet to be completed, the results so far have been disastrous, with Nigerian people facing higher prices, poor service and regular blackouts. The companies involved in the privatisation have made many workers redundant and had to be bailed out by the central bank in 2014.

Despite its vast oil wealth, over half of Nigerians lack access to electricity and the country’s grid power usage per person is among the lowest in the world, meaning that many people rely on candles and kerosene, or expensive diesel generators. Lack of electricity hampers the provision of public services like healthcare and education, and makes it difficult or impossible for businesses to operate efficiently. Since 2011 the electricity generation and distribution companies have been privatised, with Nigerians feeling the impacts already in price rises, job losses, blackouts and poor services. There is much opposition to the privatisation process which is expressed regularly by prominent Nigerian campaigners and commentators, and has also lead to street protests. Our colleagues in the Nigerian electricity workers union are also campaigning against privatisation. “While it is true that improvements to electricity generation and distribution are desperately needed in Nigeria, privatisation hasn’t and won’t deliver the efficiency it promises, and is not the answer. Privatisation has led to job losses for between 20 and 25 per cent of the workforce, and the new private employers are trying to break the unions, denying workers their most fundamental rights”, says Igwebike Dominic, Assistant General Secretary of the National Union of Electricity Employees. EPSU has commissioned research that showed the adverse effects of privatisation of public services. This time it’s the UK government that is pushing for privatisation abroad! Estimates are that around £100m of UK aid money is currently being used to support energy privatisation in Nigeria. Millions more have been spent on other projects that paved the way for privatisation. It appears that the majority, if not all, of this funding has been used to pay for consultants to help implement the reform process, rather than on infrastructure to improve people’s access to electricity or increase the amount of power generated. "It’s shocking and dismaying that the UK’s Department for International Development (DfID) continues to spend UK taxpayer’s money to advocate policies that have failed in the UK and all across Africa. It seems that DfID is blindly following a deeply discredited, ideological approach that only serves to line the pockets of UK consultants while further entrenching corruption among Nigeria’s elite”, says David Boys, Deputy General Secretary, Public Services International.
The evidence shows that time and again, energy privatisation fails to meet people’s energy needs. Global Justice Now is calling for an end to UK aid money being used to support energy privatisation, and instead to support fair, sustainable and democratically-controlled energy systems around the world. EPSU calls on UK trade unionists to support this demand and sign the petition!
Read more in the briefing “Privatising Power”

Advice from EPSU http://www.epsu.org/a/11254