A MUST READ: The End of the Privatization of PHCN

 

The Federal Government on Monday drew the curtains on the privatization of the

successor companies to the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) with the formal handing over of the remaining two – the Kaduna Distribution Company and Afam Generation Company – to their new owners.

The Northwest Power Limited got the Kaduna Disco, while Taleveras Afam Power Plc, promoted by Taleveras Group got the Afam Generation Company. The Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) had earlier announced Taleveras as the preferred bidder for Afam Genco with an offer price of $260 million, while Northwest had the highest Aggregate Technical Commercial and Collection Loss reduction (AT&C) of 29.26 per cent in respect of Kaduna Disco .

The handing over of the companies to their new owners was completed yesterday at the signing of the Share Purchase Agreement (SPA) by representatives of the BPE and the companies in Abuja. BPE’s Director General, Benjamin Dikki signed for the Federal Government; Oghens Sanomi signed for Taleveras, while Yusuf Abubakar signed for Northwest.

Before the signing of the agreement, Dikki said the final handing over of the nation’s power sector to private managers will be completed next year. He said the commencement of the second phase of the process of full liberalization of the power sector was on its advance stage as the government will soon open financial bids for the nation’s 10 National Integrated Power Project (NIIP) plants.

He said, “We have also reached an advance stage in the privatization of the 10 NIPP plants. We shall be holding the financial bid opening for the plants after we have got the approval of the Technical Committee and the National Council on Privatization (NCP).

“Once that is concluded, we would have come to a situation where the power sector will be completely in the hand of the private sector.

“But that will not preclude further government investment in the sector. “Once the sector is completely liberalized, government can also be a player in the sector until we achieve sufficiency in power supply in the country.

“Today we are making history as we come to the end of the privatization of the PHCN’s successor companies.”