As blackout and inefficiency persist in the power sector across the country, the Federal Government has ordered the sale of five electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos). The sale of the DisCos to reputable technical power operators is expected to be completed within three months.
The affected DisCos are: Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC), Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC), Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC), Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company (KAECO) and Kano Electricity Distribution Company (KEDCO).
The Asset Management Company (AMCON) and some banks have taken over the management of the DisCos because of their failure to repay loans to the financial institutions. IBEDC is under the management of AMCON. AEDC is being run by the United Bank of Africa (UBA). Fidelity Bank manages BEDC, KAECO and KEDCO.
While the investors hold 60 per cent of shares in the DisCos the Federal Government holds 40 per cent. The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, who spoke in Abuja on Monday, April 22, 2024 when the members of the Senate Committee on Power visited the Ministry, insisted that AMCON and banks that have been managing the DisCos lack the technical capacity.
“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 can no longer afford the banks to run our DisCos. This is a technical industry and it must be run by technical experts,” the minister said.
The minister said that the Federal Government was also going to transform the DisCos, noting that they were the last mile in the power supply industry. According to him, if they don’t perform, it means the entire power sector is not performing.
“We are putting pressure on the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to ensure that the DisCos sit up and if they have to withdraw their licenses for not performing, why not. We are unbundling the DisCos along state lines as some of them are too big for efficiency and effectiveness.
“Some of them are serving so many states, so we are rearranging and restricting the DisCos along state lines, so that each state government will know the distribution company responsible for their states,” he said.
The minister said it was time the federal and state governments start exercising their rights in the management and operations of the power sector.
“We have left it for the private sector for too long and they have messed it up. We also plan to franchise the DisCos, so that we can have smaller DisCos that are ready to invest,” he said.
