NCP picks bidders for Afam, Kaduna power firms

The National Council on Privatisation (NCP) has approved four pre-qualified bidders for Afam Power Plc and seven for Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company.

Atedo Peterside, chairman, technical committee of the NCP, who disclosed this after the meeting of the body at the Presidential Villa on Monday, gave the names of the approved pre-qualified bidders for the Afam Power Plc as well as those of the Kaduna Disco.

For Afam Power Plc, Primeniza Energy Limited, Televeras Group, Foby Energy Limited and TES Power Limited were announced as the pre-qualified bidders.

Those approved for the Kaduna Disco include: Axis Power Distribution Limited, NAHCO Consortium, Incar Power Limited, Aiteo Consortium, LEDA Consortium, North West Power Limited and Copperbelt Consortium.

Peterside disclosed that a total of 11 bids were received for Kaduna Disco out of which the seven were selected while nine firms bided for the Afam power plant out of which four were picked.

The meeting which focused mainly on the power sector and the report of the technical evaluation for the liquidation of Nigeria Telecommunications Ltd (NITEL) and its subsidiary, Mtel, was chaired by Vice President Namadi Sambo.

He noted that just like it was in the case of the other firms that have been so far privatised, those selected met the minimum score of 75 percent, adding that despite this, NCP still reserves the right to drop any of the selected bidders who is found to have submitted wrong information.

He announced that the short-listed firms will now participate on the financial bid opening which will be open and transparent.

“Let me also explain that like any business process, we do the evaluation as transparent as we can, but there is something called continuing due diligence and the rules are very clear in the sense that the people who have made submission, you score them on the basis of the submission they gave you . But you still continue your own due diligence so that if you find out that the information they gave was inaccurate, they can still be disqualified”.

“We want to also inform that the NCP looked at the submissions of those that failed and after a thorough assessment, we are satisfied that the process was done correctly and fairly”.

Under the “guided liquidation” policy, the NCP approved three firms to manage the liabilities and assets of NITEL/Mtel.