The federal government will re-sell the Yola Electricity Distribution Company (Disco), which was returned to it in 2015 by a core investor as a result of the Boko Haram insurgency, and two additional gas-fired power generation plants.

This development is coming as the electricity distribution companies in the country under the aegis of the Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED) have again described as false the claim by the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, that the transmission capacity has increased from 5,000 Megawatts in 2015 to 7,124 MW in December 2017, representing a yearly increase of 1,062 MW in the transmission capacity.

The Discos also stated that adequate power supply will not be feasible until 2023 because of liquidity challenges facing the power sector.

It was gathered from a document sighted at the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) that the agency has received approval from the federal government through the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) to re-sell the Yola Disco through a competitive bidding process to be managed by the BPE.

Also up for sale are the 987.2 megawatts (MW)-capacity Afam power plant and the 240MW Afam Three Fast Power Limited (ATFPL), which the government initiated in 2016.

From the BPE document, it was learnt that the agency has invited core investors to express interest in acquiring the government’s 60 per cent shareholding in Yola Disco, and 100 per cent shareholding in the Afam Genco.

For Yola Disco, the BPE stated that it had as at December 31, 2017, supplied grid power to over 181,000 customers across four states, and has 3,454 sub-stations; nine transmission stations, 33 numbers of 33KV circuits covering 6,590 kilometres and 112 11KV circuits covering 1,385 kilometres.

BPE explained that its preference for bidders of the Disco would be the existing power distribution companies or core investor groups with power distribution companies as equity investors.

The successful bidder, it explained, would be responsible for operating the Disco, make all necessary investments to improve the distribution network and customer service in line with the objectives of the government as set in the National Electric Power Policy 2001 (NEPP).

The BPE document indicated the pre-qualified bidders will be issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) and other bidding documents upon the payment of a non-refundable fee of $20,000 in bank draft payable to the bureau.

For Afam Power Plc and ATFPL, the document suggested they would be jointly privatised through competitive bidding.
As the federal government is shopping for investors to buy the Yola Disco, the remaining 10 electricity distribution companies in the country under the aegis of the Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED) have again described as false the claim by the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, that the transmission capacity has increased from 5,000 Megawatts in 2015 to 7,124 MW in December 2017, representing a yearly increase of 1,062MW in transmission capacity

•Extracted from THISDAY report