The indication came a few weeks ago.  That was when the Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Power, Hon. Patrick Ikhariale was guest to the Ray Power morning radio programme – Political Platform - through which he informed the public that, as part of the measures to ensure improvement in electric power delivery, a new Bill was in the works in the National Assembly; that such a bill will establish another agency which “will regulate the technical aspect” whilst the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) “will regulate the intellectual aspect” of the power sector. At first, I got nonplussed: Two regulatory agencies for the provision of electricity in Nigeria ? One regulating the “intellectual aspect” and the other regulating the “technical aspect” ? Later, I resigned myself to the belief that I heard Hon. Ikhariale wrongly. But I was wrong on the later as the Bill for the establishment of Nigerian Electricity Management Services Authority (NEMSA), 2014, has actually gone through First and Second Readings and is presently at the House Committee stage. And for this, a public hearing has commenced.
The questions that agitate the mind are: Is another government agency – NEMSA – desirable in the face of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) ? If it is different from NERC, is it or will it be different from the defunct NEPA ? What is the wisdom underlying the dissolution of NEPA with the attendant huge severance / emolument bills to the taxpayer while establishing a full-scale agency that will be assigned the responsibility that the law empowered NEPA to undertake and discharge ? How sincere and sensitive is the National Assembly (NASS) to its oft-deprecation of recurrent expenditure gulping almost the whole budgetary provision ? Is NASS mindful of the dilemma the federal government faces in the face of the Steve Oronsanye Committee Report ? Is the creation of an additional agency for the regulation of activities for the provision of electricity in Nigeria very compelling at the moment ?
Let’s see some of the functions of NEMSA as assigned and under Section 6 of the Bill (which provisions are not only too verbose but highly repetitive):  first, to specify conditions for installation of meters for transmission systems, distribution networks and supply of electricity; to regularly monitor the compliance level of the regulations, standards and specifications …; to enforce all statutory technical electrical standards and regulations, in particular, but not limited to, Regulations No. S.L 5 of 1996 (Electrical Installation Regulations) and Regulations No. S.1. 6 or 1996; to carry out electrical inspectorate services; to ensure all electrical materials and equipment used in Nigeria are of the right quality and standards; to ensure that the power systems and networks put in place have been properly executed before use, to ensure such systems are capable of delivering safe, reliable and sustainable electricity supply to consumers nationwide; etc.
Now any person with the slightest knowledge of the NEPA Act and functions will not but be left in a haze as to the reason behind this agenda. For while forty percent of these functions bloated in the bill was performed by the dissolved NEPA, the rest are comprised in Section 32 (e) of the Electric Power Sector Reform (EPSR) Act, 2005 which mandates NERC “to ensure the safety, security, reliability and quality of service in the production and delivery of electricity to consumers” among other duties.  With all respect, the “ingenuity” in the NEMSA Bill, particularly Section 6, finds eloquence only in verbosity and grandiose repetition perhaps, to cloak it with importance. As is obvious, the functions intended to be achieved under this Bill were largely the reason NEPA was established in the first place. Why dissolving NEPA at a huge cost to the tax payer and making a U-turn to establish another “NEPA” in a new name ?
On the surface, the NEMSA Bill appears as a private member bill, but industry observation reveals clearly that it is an overt transmutation of Electricity Management Services Ltd (EMSL) into a full fledged “NEPA”. The EMSL was one of the successor companies incorporated under Section 8 of the Electric Power Sector Reform (EPSR) Act, 2005, to assume the transient assets and liabilities of the holding company, PHCN, and whose activities are to be regulated by NERC. The Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo inaugurated the management team of EMSL on the 10th of September, 2013, to provide ancillary and non-core operational services. It is interesting to note that EMLS derives recognition and empowerment through the metering code developed by NERC. Specifically, under Section 4 of the Grid Metering Code (GMC), testing and certification of meters by EMSL or any other body are according to the standards approved / accredited by NERC. It is this same EMSL and I repeat, one of the successor companies whose activities are to be regulated by NERC, that the promoters of the NEMSA Bill want to crystallize into an agency (see Section 1 (3) of the Bill) and vest it with omnibus powers akin to those of NEPA.
Our system is already profuse in needless duplication of statutory bodies with attendant high wage bills that inhibit infrastructural developments. NERC is a technical, economic and commercial regulator for the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity in Nigeria. I think the right course of action should be to revisit and amend the EPSR Act, 2005, with a view to strengthening the technical department of NERC if it was found deficient. It would appear that NERC at the moment is poorly staffed in terms of number and sufficiency of requisite personnel perhaps owing to funding constraints. The response to this lies not in duplication but in strengthening NERC. Replication of institutions in this regard is neither a desideratum nor imperative; it can make meaning only in the land of waste.
The NEMSA Bill is superfluous. It is not even complementary. It is inherently full of conflicts that will clog progress and inhibit investments in the sector. The Ministers of Power and the Legislature should busy themselves more with intractable problems in that sector – at present there is installed capacity to deliver over 6,000 megawatts of power but the national grid is in a terrible decay and needs urgent attention

Power sector: One regulatory agency too many