Stop enriching Discos with public funds - Senate warns FG

The Senate has called on the Federal Government to rethink its approach to the power sector by ending the indirect enrichment of private electricity distribution companies with public funds.

The Chairman, Senate Committee on the Environment, Senator Yunus Abiodun Akintunde (APC – Oyo Central) disclosed this at the plenary on Thursday.

Speaking on the floor of the Senate, the lawmaker decried the current practice where government funds are being used to purchase electricity transformers for communities, only for the assets to be taken over by Discos.

“When you buy a transformer with government funds and hand it over to a community, the DisCos demand payment for installation,” Akintunde lamented. “But the moment it is energised, it becomes their asset. That’s how public money ends up enriching private monopolies.”

The lawmaker, Nigeria’s first PhD holder in Energy and Environmental Studies, described the trend as unsustainable and unjust, adding that the government must develop a structured subsidy regime that truly benefits ordinary Nigerians.

“Electricity subsidies are not a Nigerian anomaly—they’re a global necessity,” he noted. “Even in advanced economies like the UK, energy is subsidised. We shouldn’t abandon the idea simply because of past abuses. Subsidies, when properly managed, drive growth and shield the poor.”