20100827
africanews

LAGOS (Reuters) - Nigeria will hand over management of its electricity grid to a Canadian, Indian or Irish firm by year-end as it embarks on the multi-billion dollar privatisation of its dilapidated power sector, a top official said on Friday.

Bart Nnaji, head of a presidential taskforce charged with reforming Nigeria's power sector, said Manitoba Hydro, owned by the Canadian province of Manitoba, India's Power Grid Corp and Ireland's Electricity Supply Board (ESB) were the three final bidders to manage the transmission network.

"I can tell you that we expect to finalise everything and hand over by the end of the year," Nnaji told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference in the commercial hub of Lagos.

President Goodluck Jonathan on Thursday unveiled a blueprint for ending chronic power shortages in Africa's most populous nation, which estimates its electricity sector needs $10 billion of annual investment over the next decade.

Under the strategy, Nigeria will privatise power generation and distribution. Government will continue to own the national grid but its management will be privatised.

Nnaji said Nigeria would hold a "retreat" for investors from around the world in mid-October to further explain its plans.

Despite being Africa's biggest oil and gas producer, Nigeria relies on diesel generators to power everything from phone chargers to luxury hotels because of constant power outages.

Jonathan's plan, unveiled less than five months before elections are due to be held, is the most comprehensive yet designed to solve the nation's power problems.