The Bureau of Public Enterprises has further clarified its role in the takeover of five poor performing power distribution companies, naming Ibadan DisCo the worst of them. Ibadan DisCo is originally managed by former banker Tunde Ayeni.
According to Alex Okoh, BPE’s director-general, Ayeni’s Integrated Energy Distribution and Marketing Limited (IEDM) “is the worst performing DISCO as per the Performance Assessment review conducted in December 2021.”
“Ibadan DISCO has 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,” he said.
Ibadan DisCo has faced multiple challenges in recent times, including its initial takeover by the Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON) over loan default. The company subsequently reverted to its original owners following a court ruling. The disco and four others have now been taken over by Fidelity Bank to whom its core investors are indebted.
In its bid to recover its money, the creditor (Fidelity Bank) decided to acquire the core investors shares in the troubled discos, which they (core investors) had used as collaterals to obtain loan facilities from the bank.
The other affected discos are Benin, Port Harcourt, Kano and Kaduna DISCOs.
On the development, Okoh stated that “the poor performance of these DISCOs represents a clear and present threat to the power sector as a whole.”
“No responsible government and shareholder, would stand idly by and allow this situation to persist”, he avowed.
