The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has reported power outage in the northeast, northwest and parts of north-central after 330-kilovolt (kV) Ugwaji–Apir double circuit transmission lines 1 and 2 tripped on Tuesday.

In a statement via X by Ndidi Mbah, general manager, public affairs, TCN said the transmission lines tripped around 4:53am “due to a fault”.

“The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) reports that its 330kV Ugwaji–Apir Double Circuit transmission lines1&2, tripped due to a fault, resulting in a forced power outage affecting the North East, North West and parts of North Central,” the commission said.

“At approximately 4:53 am, the Ugwuaji-Makurdi 330kV Line 2 tripped, and 243 MW on that line was transferred to Line 1 on the same route. At 4:58 am, Line 1 also tripped, resulting in a total loss of 468 MW. By around 5:15 am and 5:17 am, Line 1 and Line 2 were tried, but they all tripped immediately on the same relay indication.

“Following the tripping incidents yesterday, two teams of linesmen were dispatched—one from the Apir Transmission Sub-region and another from the Enugu transmission team—to expedite fault tracing along the 215 km route, which includes 245 transmission towers.

“Throughout yesterday, the Apir team patrolled the line, navigating difficult terrain in search of the fault, reaching as far as the River Benue. They could not locate the cause of the tripping and have continued the fault tracing early this morning.”

‘SIT-AT-HOME DIRECTIVE AFFECTED PATROL’

TCN said a ‘sit-at-home’ directive reportedly by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) affected the commission’s patrol activities.

Several social media posts on Monday suggested that the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) had ordered south-eastern residents to sit at home on Monday and Tuesday.

“Meanwhile, the patrol team from the Enugu Region of TCN was unable to begin patrols yesterday due to the ‘sit-at-home’ directive in the South East for October 21st and 22nd, 2024,” TCN said.

“This restricted not only the patrol team but also made it difficult to refuel patrol vehicles for the long-distance line trace. However, arrangements were made for security operatives to guide the team, who have now commenced fault tracing this morning.

“Currently, TCN has restored supply to the 132kV transmission line from New Haven to Apir, but the 330kV lines remain out of service, affecting power supply in the northern region. Unfortunately, the TCN Shiroro-Mando transmission line is also down due to security challenges, causing a power outage in the North.”

TCN said challenging terrain, including swamps and rivers, as well as unsafe areas in forests, delayed their search for solutions on Monday.

“We sincerely apologise to the government and electricity consumers in all the affected states and acknowledge that our patrol teams would have continued their search into the night if not for the challenging terrain, which includes swamps and rivers, as well as insecure areas in the forest,” the commission said.

“We reconvened very early this morning with security operatives and have continued the fault tracing to locate and address the cause of the line tripping.”

TCN said the commission is making every effort to trace the cause of the outage to allow their engineers to carry out repairs and restore bulk power supply through both lines.

On Sunday, Sule Abdulaziz, TCN chief executive officer (CEO), said the commission is not to blame for all national grid collapses in the country.

Abdulaziz said system collapse could be caused by generation, transmission, and distribution issues.

The Association of Telecommunication Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) have rejected plans to reintroduce a 5 percent excise duty on the telecommunications industry.

According to an executive bill, titled ‘Nigeria Tax Bill 2024,’ the national assembly is seeking the reintroduction of a 5 percent excise duty on telecommunications services, gaming, betting, and lottery activities.

The proposed bill comes more than one year after President Bola Tinubu, signed an executive order suspending the 5 percent excise tax on telecommunication services.

Tony Emoekpere, president of ATCON, said the association is against the plan to reintroduce the excise duty.

According to Emoekpere, it would be unfair for the government to impose an excise duty when telecommunication companies are striving to sustain operations.

“We’ve been complaining already about the fact that the tariffs we are being charged have not increased for the last 10 years and the industry is actually groaning under the lack of revenue,” he said.

“To add this to the already existing situation is like a blow that might totally sink the sector.”

In 2023, new fiscal policy measures (FPMs) — approved by President Muhammadu Buhari — included supplementary protection measures (SPM), revised excise duty rates, and green taxes.

The FPMs also impose a 5 percent excise duty on mobile telephone services (GSM), fixed telephone, and internet services — postpaid and prepaid.

But, Isa Pantami, former minister of communications and digital economy had insisted that the sector remain exempted from the tax — citing a previous presidential approval for the exemption.

Emoekpere said the association thought since the sector was earlier exempted not just by the former minister but also by the current president, it had been a foregone issue.

TELCOS TO MEET MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS

The ATCON president said plans are underway to meet Bosun Tijani, minister of communications, innovation and digital economy, to prevent the implementation of the excise duty.

“We will be reaching out to the ministry to see what efforts they can make to discourage this attempt because it was actually attempted before by the former minister but we got word that it was stepped down so we’re surprised that they’re coming up again at this time,” Emoekpere said.

“We will be exploring all avenues to find out why it’s coming up again despite all the efforts of the former minister and why it is still arising.”

‘PROVIDE TAX BREAKS, INCENTIVES FOR TELECOMS SECTOR’

Emoekpere also called on the federal government to look into improving the sector as it is a major source of revenue and boost to the economy.

“What the government should be considering, is what are the primary causes of high costs of operations to the telecom sector and ways to ameliorate them,” he said.

“One of the biggest challenges is that fact that a bulk of the communication sites are dependent on diesel and this diesel costs, especially now that the foreign exchange market has been fully liberalised.

“So whenever FX changes, they also affect your cost of purchasing diesel and other petroleum products. This is a big challenge to the industry.

“So if they (the government) say we are not increasing the tariff, what are the measures they are giving in terms of tax breaks or tax incentives, are there ways whereby we can encourage more local production of some of the inputs into the sector?

“These are things the government should be looking at not adding additional excise duty tax on a sector that’s already really pushing forward.

“We don’t want to get to a situation whereby people are not able to communicate at all.”

Furthermore, he said the increase in tariff or excise duty does not affect the sustainability of the sector, adding that they are indirect taxes that go to the government.

Emoekpere said what telcos need at the moment is revenue to meet their operational needs, overcome losses and improve their services.

Telecommunications companies have been clamouring for an upward tariff review to make the sector attractive to investors.

On April 25, telcos said their services were overdue for price increments as they have not raised rates in the last 11 years.

The federal government has approved the divestment of four international oil companies (IOCs).

Gbenga Komolafe, the chief executive officer (CEO) of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), spoke on Wednesday during the commission’s launch of the project 1 million barrels of oil per day (mmbpd) initiative.

Komolafe said the commission received the application in respect of five divestment transactions for regulatory approval.

According to the NUPRC CEO, the approved deals are Eni’s divestment of Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) to Oando Plc, and Equinor Nigeria Energy Company Limited’s divestment to Project Odinmin Investments Limited.

Others are the TotalEnergies-Telema Energies deal and ExxonMobil’s sale of Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited (MPNU) to Seplat Energy.

NUPRC said the four deals have also received ministerial consent.

However, he said the divestment of Shell Petroleum Development Company Limited’s assets to Renaissance Africa Energy Company Limited could not scale regulatory test.

“Currently, we have processed four of the transactions and four of them have received ministerial consent,” he said.

“The four transactions are the transactions in respect of Equinor–Project Odinmim. That has been recommended by the regulator in line with the provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act and it has received ministerial consent.

“Also, the transaction in respect of Agip to Oando, that has equally been processed in line with the established regulatory pillars and that has equally received ministerial consent and that has been communicated accordingly.

“Also, a transaction in respect to ExxonMobil-Seplat has equally successfully been recommended by the regulator and I am happy to announce that has received ministerial consent. Also, a transaction in respect of 10 percent divestment by TotalEnergies (to Telema Energies) has equally been completed by the regulator and has received ministerial consent.

“All in all, out of the five major divestment transactions that were referred to the commission for processing, the commission for the first time in history ensured that robust regulatory framework was established in line with the PIA.”

Komolafe said the process has been institutionalised through regulation, adding that the commission diligently processed all the transactions.