BPE describes Ibadan DisCo as worst-performing Electricity Distribution Company

The Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) has described Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (DISCO) as the worst-performing DisCo, according to the Performance Assessment review conducted in December 2021.

The reaction from BPE follows the need to clarify some issues regarding the insinuations and statements emanating from some of the DisCos that were recently restructured following the collaterised shares of some of the DisCos.

This was made known in a press statement issued by the Director-General of the BPE, Alex Okoh, who also said that the performance of Benin, Port Harcourt, Kano and Kaduna DisCos have been abysmal.

“Ibadan is the worst performing DISCO as per the Performance Assessment review conducted in December 2021. Ibadan DISCO has actually retrogressed in terms of their critical performance parameters as contracted in the Performance Agreement signed with the Bureau. In fact, the DISCO under the management of the Core Investor, Integrated Energy Distribution and Marketing Limited (IEDM), has performed worse than before it was privatized,” Okoh stated.

Financial troubles of the DISCOs

BPE, which midwifed the sale of these power companies, and the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), which regulates the power sector, had earlier informed the public through a joint statement that they were informed by Fidelity Bank Plc on July 5, 2022, that a call on the collateralized shares of the Core Investors of Kano, Benin and Kaduna DisCos had been activated by the lenders.

The Lenders’ consortium include AFREXIM Bank, Keystone Bank, Stanbic IBTC, as well as Fidelity Bank.

BPE stated, ‘’It is important to note that the action is a contractual and commercial intervention and is between the Core Investors in these DisCos and the lenders. BPE’s involvement is to protect the 40% shareholding of the Federal Government in the DisCos.

‘’It was on this basis that new boards reflecting this action were constituted as follows:

• Kano DISCO: Hasan Tukur (Chairman), Nelson Ahaneku (Member), Engr. Rabiu Suleiman (Member)
• Benin DISCO: KC Akuma (Chairman), Adeola Ijose (Member), Charles Onwera (Member)
• Kaduna DISCO: Abbas Jega (Chairman), Ameenu Abubakar (Member), Marlene Ngoyi (Member)

‘’BPE has nominated Bashir Gwandu (Kano DISCO), Yomi Adeyemi (Benin DISCO), and Umar Abdullahi (Kaduna DISCO) as independent Directors to represent Government’s 40% interest in the aforementioned DISCOs, during this transition.’’

BPE also noted that as the agency representing the interest of the Federal Government in the DisCos it has already engaged with the Central Bank of Nigeria for an orderly transition and to ensure that the lenders do not hold the collateralized shares of the Core Investors in perpetuity.

This is because they do not have the technical capacity, nor have they been duly authorised to operate an electricity distribution company. The lenders have also assured BPE and NERC that they would participate fully in all the ongoing market initiatives aimed at improving the sector (e.g., National Mass Metering Program).

It is expected that the majority interest in these DisCos would be sold to competent private sector investors with the requisite technical and financial capacity to re-capitalize and manage these entities efficiently.

NERC and BPE in an interim measure, met on an Emergency Basis and activated the Business Continuity Process and appointed interim Managing Directors in the affected DisCos as follows:

• Kano DISCO – Ahmad Dangana
• Benin DISCO – Henry Ajagbawa
• Kaduna DISCO – Yusuf Usman Yahaya

BPE frowns at the publications of the affected DisCos

• Okoh in his statement reiterated that some of the publications from the Core Investors of these DisCos have been quite disingenuous, noting that beyond the financial issues he has just pointed out, the affected DisCos happen to be the worst-performing ones.
• He pointed out that Ibadan is currently being managed by a so-called Receiver Manager as a sole administration, adding that the Receiver Manager has absolutely no capacity to manage a utility and has not been authorised by the Regulator as a manager of a DisCo.
• Okoh said, ‘’It is necessary to state categorically that the poor performance of these DISCOs represents a clear and present threat to the power sector as a whole and no responsible government and shareholder, would stand idly by and allow this situation to persist.’’