Banks Cannot Provide for Power Sector Loans Because It’s Systemically Important - Wigwe

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Obinna Chima
The Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Access Bank Plc, Mr. Herbert Wigwe, has explained why Nigerian banks have still not made provisions for most of the power sector loans, despite the fact that most of the loans taken by investors who bought up the federal government’s assets in the electricity sector almost four years had defaulted on their loan repayments.
He said if the banks were to make impairment charges on the loans it would be counterproductive, as the power sector was systemically important and critical to the growth of the Nigerian economy.
Wigwe, who said this during an interview on ARISE News Channel, the sister broadcast station of THISDAY Newspapers Tuesday, described the issues surrounding the power sector privatisation as very important and urged the federal government to look into the issues and create some form of reprieve for investors that had staked their funds in the sector.
“There is a problem in that value chain and there is also a problem with the pricing of their product which everybody needs to look at. There is a problem in terms of access to gas also. So several little things need to be resolved. Read more