Nigerian Senate has called on the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) and the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to immediately suspend the World Bank funded NMMP Phase 2 in order to undertake a comprehensive review of the procurement criteria to prioritize local manufacturing and assembling.
The Senate also mandated TCN and NERC to look towards the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) intervention funds or engage the African Export-Import Bank (AFREXIM).
This followed a motion sponsored by Sen Victor Umeh, Anambra Central on the urgent need to protect local meter manufacturers in the ongoing national mass metering programme of the federal government.
Umeh had said that the Duty of Industry Procurement Regulators in every developing Economy, first and foremost, is to protect its Local Manufacturers and would only try to augment importation of goods and services where there is a clear-cut gap between local production and consumption.
However the upper Chamber urged the executive to immediately suspend the TCN Tender for World Bank funded NMMP Phase 2 in order to undertake comprehensive Review of the Procurement Criteria to prioritize local Manufacturing and Assembling in line with Local Content and Backward Integration Policy.
