QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS OF ADEQUATE DUE DILIGENCE PROCEDURES AS IMPERATIVE FOR EFFECTIVE PRIVATISATION OF ELECTRICITY SERVICE DELIVERY IN NIGERIA

Back to Page Authors: Eniola Victor Olamide

Keywords: qualitative analysis, diligence, electricity service delivery, privatisation, Nigeria

Abstract: Advocacy for adequate due diligence procedure is been touted in this paper has been essential to the actualisation of effective privatisation of electricity service delivery in any nation. However, in the case of Nigeria, the ominous experience of an incessant power failure as the reverberative effect of the privatisation of the sector necessitates the investigative research this paper is saddled to carry out. Objectively, the paper identifies the tenets of due diligence procedures and evaluates the adequacy of principles of due diligence procedure in the privatisation process. The analysis was based on the following parameters like; Electric facilities disinvestment, adequate due diligence, technical competence and financial capacity, facilities spatial data and population expansion, and weak physical planning process. The study stressed the need for fundamental consideration of the enabling environment of adequate functionality of the electrical facilities before embarking on the privatisation of electricity service delivery. The paper purposively selected the relevant stakeholders from the relevant ministries and agencies. The study adopted a qualitative method using; alphanumeric, thematic, and constant content analysis as an analytical tool. The results showed 100% of the respondents, stakeholders from the Government side that of the distribution company agreed that there is an electricity service delivery problem. The findings showed a poor representation of the relevant stakeholders during the privatisation planning process and inadequate due diligence procedure in the electricity service delivery privatization in Nigeria which eventually explained the ineffectiveness of the privatisation of electricity service delivery in Nigeria. The paper hence recommended that adequate due diligence procedure on electricity service delivery facilities be carried out. Furthermore, the exercise could be contracted out but, must ensure the actual condition of facilities on the ground and their functional adequacy for effective electricity service delivery under privatisation is guaranteed