CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1        BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

The National Electric Power Authority was established by the NEPA Act of 1972. The Act authorized the merger of the activities of the Niger Dam Authority and the Electricity Corporation of Nigeria. The operative object clause is among other things: “to develop and maintain an efficient, coordinated and economical system of electricity supply to all parts of the federation or as the Authority may direct, and for this purpose:

·        Generate or acquire supply of electricity,

·        Provide bulk supply of electricity for distribution within or outside Nigeria, and

·        Provide supply of electricity for consumers in Nigeria from time to time as may be authorized by the authority”.

A close scrutiny of NEPA performance over the years reveals that the above provisions of the Decree are not efficiently observed. It was estimated, according to a World Bank Report, that inefficiency in power sector alone created losses of over US$800 million annually in Nigeria (World Bank 1994).

Today, investment costing stands flawed without imputing the cost of self-provision of electricity whilst the affluent make provisions for private electricity generators for domestic use.

Bedeviled with gross inefficiency and inappropriate investment strategy, NEPA record transmission loss of 15% - 20% owing to inadequate distribution expectant. Between 15%-20% of its output is not metered and hence no revenue is earned on it. This means between 30% - 40% of NEPA output does not yield revenue. The expected loss by international standard is 5% - 10%. It is a common knowledge that due to poor operational practices and inadequate management tools and skills, sharp practices are very rampant in the system. (World Bank 1995).

Managerial success to a great extent entails working with and through people to achieve organizational objective. When management has the unrealistic and narrow outlook that labour is primarily an adjunct to the machine and is to be bought at the cheapest market, its organization will be inefficient, human resources will be wasted and the workers will consider the organization undesirable to work. This leads to industrial strikes and places the organization at a great disadvantage in its drive to recruit and retain the right caliber of personnel necessary for its operations. Human resources are the most important assets an organization has, and any attempt to sideline the human resources in development purpose will spell doom to the organization. 

A human oriented management recognizes that fact that individuals join organization with varied drives and motives both economical and psychological. Such management therefore designs and maintains an organization in which employees meet their wants and needs by contributing to the overall interest and aims of the organization at the same time. While meeting his personal needs, he also needs organization’s objectives.

In the light of this, one sees motivation as those drives which enable an employee to have increased morale and psychological stability, required for increased productivity. The study therefore, centers on NEPA, in order to determine the extent, to which the company appreciates the overriding benefits outlines from employee motivation because all these benefits have appendages (positive or negative) towards organizational output.

Apart from political instability, a major setback for improving the economic fortunes and development of the West African sub-region is the state of the power industry in the sub-region. Typical West African countries like Nigeria, Benin, Gambia, Mali and Togo have power consumption per capita of less than 150Kilo-watt hour.

Energy consumption in selected African countries vs Industrialized Nations.

Countries

Energy Consumed in KWH

Ghana

420

Nigeria

85

Cote D’ Ivoire

180

Industrialized Nations

1900-6000

Source: NEPA (1991)

This is appreciably low if compared with an average of 1900-kilowatt hour and 6000 kilowatt hour for industrial nations.

          The low pace of development of the West African Power sector is due to the form of ownership and control of the institution that produces and distributes electricity in this region. Generally, electricity industry within the sub-region in under State Control with utility boards or agencies given full monopoly for generation, transmission and distribution of electricity.

          Because of this from of control and monopoly status, the operating environment does not encourage any form of competition and foreign capital investment. The resultant effect is decline, not only in the power sector, but industrial development.

          Specifically, a nation like Nigeria whose chief source of foreign exchange in crude oil exploration and exportation and which remains the largest oil producer in the whole of Africa with about 1.88 million barrel per day and whose estimated 124 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of proven gas reserves and huge Hydro power reserves, its potential for becoming an industrial giant and main exporter of electricity to the West African sub-region is great. However, due to long years of uneconomic planning, regulation and control of the power sector by government, requisite attention has not been paid to these important levers of the economy.

MOTIVATION

Historically, motivation developed in 3 main streams:

1.      Traditional Model

This model rests on the assumption that people come to work only because of money. The task of management therefore is to clearly define the job and develop system of wage and punishment in order to get best from workers.

2.      Human Relations Model

This is based on the assumption that people come to work because of social interaction. The role of management therefore is to design the job in order that employees achieve an optimum level of social interaction. This is expected to create social harmony and by extension, optimum performance from workers.

3.           Human Resources or Behavioural Model

This is based on the assumption that people come to work in order to fulfill higher level need such as responsibility, achievement, work content etc. this school of thought believes that a manager that focuses on the areas of job enrichment and enlargement world create an enabling environment for superb performance.

          Having said all this, motivation could be explained as a process of stimulating people to action to achieve desired goals or to accomplish given tasks. It is within a person to achieve a goal or objective, everything being equal. Motivation could also be regarded as the function which managers perform in organizational goals. It is one of the most enigmatic aspects of management. It refers to the way in which urges, desires, needs, aspirations which are basically tension symptoms occurring within individuals are harnessed and channeled towards smooth, constructive and co-operative behaviour towards the achievement of organizational goals. All human behaviour is motivated in that it is directed towards the satisfaction of physical, emotional, social conditioned or psychic needs. In the jargons of the theoretical and experimental psychologist, a stimulus acts upon the organism to produce behaviour response. Making use of the concept of homeostatic, this means that when a need is felt or perceived, a tension is crated in the individual, which leads to activities intended to reduce the tension created.

          Motives induce that will to act and so result in behaviour. Motivation generally refers to the factors that influence people to act. It is viewed as the process of action.

          During the past few decades, the quest for better ways of motivating people at work has caused some researchers to concentrate more on the psychological factors that stimulate workers than the development of incentives of financial reward because of its significance. It is known that people possess certain needs to be satisfied. When their satisfaction is frustrated or blocked in one way or the other people react against this in various ways according to circumstances.

          If you want to motivate people for greater productivity, you must find out what their needs or wants are their desires and aspirations, why do people seek employment and what would they actually expect from their work environment. The physiological needs which s innate in human being must be satisfied, otherwise employees are not motivated for better productivity. Some elements of a job give people a chance to satisfy their higher level needs, which are called motivators, this should not be overlooked. Although, individuals and group vary to some extent in the particular job element that they find satisfying or motivating, but generally they refer to the content of the job. Therefore, if motivation is to be effective, workers should be provided with opportunity to be happy and do interesting job enthusiastically.

          It is not the interest of the organization for management to have the unrealistic motion that labour is primarily an adjunct to the machine and that the employee-employer relationship is purely contractual, suggesting the right to command and the right to obey because the workers are there to satisfy their economic needs. This type of attitude is demotivational and very much dis-functional and will have on alienating effect on the workers and consequent immensely reflect on their productivity. Productivity measures the fruitfulness of human labour under varying circumstance, it is also a measure of the efficiency or resources as a whole including manpower employees in production. To achieve effective motivation for greater productivity, there should be proper blending of the corporate needs with the individual needs.

1.2        STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

In the recent times, the Nigerian economy has witnessed a steady and rapid decrease in productivity in almost all the areas of the economy, the energy sector inclusive. The industrial sector probably the worst hit by this intractable ugly trend of event. The preliminary investigations carried out by this researcher has shown that NEPA also experience similar problems of the study and rapid decrease in productivity was due to lack or inadequate motivation following from this, the researcher has decided to find out whether the problem arose because of lack of motivation, if so, what could be done to ensure efficiency and enhance productivity. In doing this, an attempt will be made to expose the motivational technique already being employed by the management of NEPA. The reactions of the workers to these techniques and whether they were understood as expected.

PRIVATIZATION    

          Privatization is associated with sale of public sector Assets usually held by Governments to private investors. It is distinct from commercialization which could mean Government still retains its holding and controls while ensuring that the utility is run efficiently and on a commercial basis and with a view towards making profit.

HOW DID PUBLIC SECTOR INVESTMENTS BECOME SO HUGE?

According to a survey by the defunct TCPC in 1991, Nigeria has about 1,500 Public enterprises-600 owned by the Federal Government, and the rest States and Local Government.

Estimates of Vision 2010 Committee indicate that Federal Government Investments in public enterprises stood at over U$$100Billion in 1996. Reliable Government sources also claim that Public Enterprises consume about N200Billion of national resources annually by way of grants, subsidies, import duty waivers, tax exemptions, etc.

DEVELOPING WORLD (NIGERIA)

In addition, a strong public sector was considered an indispensable vehicle for propelling economic development in Nigeria, as was the case in other developing countries. In the African content, moreover, and in relation to the post colonial era, state control of enterprises through nationalization was a politically expedient process of gaining some degree of macroeconomics independence as well as protecting their economics from continuing to be completely controlled by foreigners.

Succinctly put successive Nigeria Government Invested huge sums of money in the economy to amongst other things:

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