The federal government has revealed their plans to sell off five electricity distribution companies which are being managed by some banks and asset management company to technical power operators in July of 2024. This message was passed by Adebayo Adelabu in a meeting by the senate committee on power to the ministry.
In conjunction with Fidelity bank and AMCON , the Nigerian government are making these move to save the companies from insolvency among other reasons, in 2022 they took over the affairs of Kano electricity distribution company, Benin electricity distribution company , Kaduna electricity distribution company and Port Harcourt electricity distribution company.
The decision became of paramount importance due to their continued poor performance, which was a set back to the Nigerian electricity supply, according to the minister , the ministry will prevail on the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory commission to dismiss underperforming license and also change the management board of the Discos if it becomes the solution.
According to him,” very tough decisions will be taken on the distribution companies, they are the last lap of the sector, if they don’t perform, it only means the entire sector is not performing, the entire ministry is not performing, we have put pressure on NERC which is their regulator to make sure they raise the bar on the regulation activities. If they have to withdraw the licenses from them for non performance, why not? if they have to change the board of management, why not? And all the Discos that are still under AMCON and banks, within the next three months they must be sold to technical power operators with good reputations in utility management”
” We can no longer afford AMCON to run our Discos, we ca n no longer afford the banks to run our Discos, this is a technical industry and it must be run by technical experts” discussing further the minister revealed that efforts are being made to bridge the metering gap in the nation for the next four to five years, he said that the federal government are done with the mobilization of a technical company named Messr Zigglass to supply three million meters which costs $200 million.
” If you held 32 billion naira for these years where is the interest” according to the minister, the president of the federal republic of Nigeria, Bola Ahmed Tinubu has instructed that the contract should be revoked, adding that the funding is coming from seed capital of 100 billion naira and 75 billion naira. Adelobu blamed issues in the industry on uncompleted projects urging the committee to approve funds for the completion of over 120 projects that cut across the country.
Isaiah Jibrin who is also a member of the committee disclosed that some of the operators have stripped the assets of the Discos they took over in 2013, he reiterated that the operators of any Discos revoked must be made to fix the assets as they were before hand. Giving in his remarks, the chairman of senate committee on power, Eyinnaya gave his assurance that the increased budgetary allocations to the sector will go along way in solving most challenges and problems in the sector.
