The Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria says the only way to make the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company more efficient is to sell it to viable investors.
The AMCON Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Gbenga Alade, stated this at an interactive session with media executives in Lagos on Monday.
Alade told journalists that when he took office five months ago, he reviewed the cases before AMCON, saying the power sector is one.
The AMCON boss believes that no economy can grow and move forward without a stable power supply.
He noted that the corporation has tried to resolve the issues affecting the IBEDC, but the process has yet to be concluded.
In January 2022, AMCON took over the IBEDC due to insolvency.
This followed a September 2021 court judgment that granted preservative orders in favour of AMCON, being the receiver/manager of Integrated Energy Distribution and Marketing Limited.
Speaking, Alade disclosed that the Disco being managed by AMCON would be sold to investors with ”deep pockets”.
“In the power sector, we have Ibadan DisCo, which is under AMCON. We’ve tried as much as possible to get that resolved. And we’re in the process. We are yet to conclude the sale, but we are making very good headway in resolving Ibadan DisCo,” he said.
Alade expressed optimism that the IBEDC would be profitable if sold, saying it covers different states, including Ogun industrial areas.
”I believe that Ibadan Disco is the largest disco that we have because it goes across so many states like Ogun, including all the industrial areas of Ogun State. We believe that it can be made more efficient if sold to people with deep pockets who can invest, not people who just buy and not invest; they don’t have money to invest.
“With people who have deep pockets to invest in making that company more efficient and more effective, it will go a long way to helping the power sector,” he noted.
Rcall that the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, in April ordered the sale of Discos that have been taken over by banks and the Assets Management Corporation from its original investors/owners.
Currently, four Discos are under the management of banks and AMCON.
Aside from the IBEDC, the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company is under the management of the United Bank of Africa, while Fidelity Bank manages Benin, Kaduna, and Kano DisCos.
The four Discos are under these new managements due to their inability to repay their loans to the financial institutions.
To bolster the power sector, the AMCON boss noted that the corporation has completed a power project in Kaduna State.
“We also looked at the Kaduna power project as well, which has been abandoned for a few years. By God’s grace, we were able to sign an MoU with the project people. Work has already started on that project as well,” he maintained.