The Federal Government through the National Council on Privatisation (NCP), has received an approval to resale of Yola Electricity Distribution Company (YEDC), as it invites core investors to express interest in acquiring the government’s 60% shareholding in the electricity distribution company.
987.2 megawatts (MW) capacity Afam power plant and 240MW Afam Three Fast Power Limited (ATFPL), which the government initiated in 2016 have also been put up for sale through a competitive bidding process that is expected to be managed by the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), a agency of NCP charged with the overall responsibility of implementing the council’s policies on privatisation and commercialisation.
The Yola Disco, is located in the North Eastern region of Nigeria and its area of operation include: Adamawa, Borno, Taraba, Yobe, and towns near Yaounde in Cameroon, Chad and Niger borders.
In 2015, two years after it bought over the assets from the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), the core investors in Yola Disco, IEDM declared a force majeure and returned YEDC to the Federal Government on the grounds that it was impossible to operate and access the assets of the electricity distribution firm in the North-east due to the activities of Boko Haram insurgency.
After a joint evaluation of the electricity asset as provided under the terms of the share purchase agreement, the BPE and Ministry of Power, during the Goodluck Jonathan administration had approved $186 million as the sum to be refunded to Integrated Energy. But the payment of the sum was stalled over concerns that the amount was too high, forcing the parties to the transaction to renegotiate the compensation to be paid to Integrated Energy.
The Federal Government renegotiated and reached an agreement with IEDM on a payout of $87.8 million as against the $186 million earlier approved as compensation to the company after it returned YEDC to the Federal Government.
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