Nigeria puts 5 power plants up for sale, completes Yola DisCo privatisation

The Federal Government’s 10 independent power plants built by the NDPHC under the NIPP are to be privatised soon.

The Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE) has said the government is putting five power plants in the country for sale after the previous privatisation arrangement was cancelled.

Alex Okoh, director-general, BPE, disclosed this in a virtual conference organised by the Electricity Hub, saying, “We are in the process of restarting a fresh transaction and it is going to be a competitive bid. We are going to advertise for five out of the 10 power plants Geregu, Omotosho, Olorunsogo, Benin, and Calabar IPPs.

“These are the plants with the least problems and as a result of that considered to be the most viable and likely to be the most successful of the exercise.”

The government will be advertising for expression of interest very shortly and has approved a fast track approach to realize revenue within this fiscal year, he said.

The government plans to front-load all the requirements for the investment to shorten the time period for when the process will be completed.

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According to Okoh, the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) has approved the re-privatisation of Yola DisCo.

“We have a new core investor, approved last week by NCP,” Okoh said.

The government is also trying to ensure that payment are structured so that the core investor do not come up with the entire cash in one swoop to allow revenues for investment in improve the network infrastructure

Okoh also said that Yola DisCo, which covers the northeastern part of the country where insurgency is going on, the new investor and the government have mapped out areas where collections can be made and areas termed red zones where services cannot be rendered.

The new DisCos managing Yola franchise area is now Quest Electricity limited and has completed the sale with the FG last Thursday

Afam power plant was completed in November, N105 billion and it is a strong indication that there is strong interest in the sector, Okoh said.

Isaac Anyaogu

Isaac Anyaogu is an Assistant editor and head of the energy and environment desk. He is an award-winning journalist who has written hundreds of reports on Nigeria’s oil and gas industry, energy and environmental policies, regulation and climate change impacts in Africa. He was part of a journalist team that investigated lead acid pollution by an Indian recycler in Nigeria and won the international prize - Fetisov Journalism award in 2020. Mr Anyaogu joined BusinessDay in January 2016 as a multimedia content producer on the energy desk and rose to head the desk in October 2020 after several ground breaking stories and multiple award wining stories. His reporting covers start-ups, companies and markets, financing and regulatory policies in the power sector, oil and gas, renewable energy and environmental sectors He has covered the Niger Delta crises, and corruption in NIgeria’s petroleum product imports. He left the Audit and Consulting firm, OR&C Consultants in 2015 after three years to write for BusinessDay and his background working with financial statements, audit reports and tax consulting assignments significantly benefited his reporting. Mr Anyaogu studied mass communications and Media Studies and has attended several training programmes in Ghana, South Africa and the United States

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