•Says legal disputes, bottlenecks slowing rollout of 1.44m smart meters
•Tags project’s development objectives as ‘moderately satisfactory’
Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja
The World Bank has raised concerns over persistent implementation delays in Nigeria’s Distribution Sector Recovery Programme (DISREP), warning that legal disputes, procurement bottlenecks and slow contract execution are threatening the pace of reforms aimed at improving electricity distribution across the country.
However, the bank disclosed that it is considering an additional $308 million financing package to accelerate the programme, including the procurement of 1.7 million more electricity meters, network rehabilitation and customer enumeration.The details are contained in the World Bank’s Midterm Review Implementation Support Mission and Additional Financing Preparation Aide Memoire seen by THISDAY.
