… As Quest Electricity emerges preferred bidder for YEDC
The chairman, Technical Committee of the National Council on Privatization (NCP), Mr. M.K. Ahmed on Tuesday announced Transcorp Power Consortium as the winner of the commercial and financial bid for the privatization of Afam Power Plc.
Represented at the bid opening ceremony in Abuja by, Dr. Ayo Teriba, at the end of the exercise, he said that “the bid submitted by Transcorp Consortium was N105.3billion is hereby declared as the winning bid.”
According to him, the runner up is the bid submitted by the Diamond Stripes for N102.4billion. It is the runner up and reserved bidder. Transcorp Consortium winning the bid, and Diamond Stripes coming first runner up.”
Commenting on the bid for Yola Electricity Distribution Company (YAEDC), he noted that Quest Electricity that was the sole bidder won the bid with its offer of N19billion.
He had earlier explained that the trio of prospective investors: Diamond Stripes Power Consortium, Transcorp Power Consortium and Unicorn Power Generation Consortium were in the bid for the acquisition of Federal Government 100 per cent shareholding in Afam Power Plc.
Ahmed also revealed that although Sandstream Nig Limited and Quest Electricity Ltd were in the race for the acquisition of Federal Government 60 percent stakes in YEDC, the former firm was disqualified for not submitting a bank guarantee alongside the commercial proposal as required by the BPE.
This led to the nullification and nullification of the Sandstream Nig Ltd submission which automatically made Quest Electric the sole bidder for the acquisition of Federal Government 60 per cent shares in the Yola DisCo.
For the acquisition of the YEDC and Afam power shares, the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Director General, Mr. Alex Okoh, had earlier recalled that in line with the approval of the NCP, the BPE, called for expression of interests on August 16, 2018.
Wednesday, September 16, 2018, according to him, was the deadline for the expression of interest but at the deadline 12 firms expressed interest in Afam Power.
He noted that during the evaluation of the expression of interest, nine firms obtained the qualifying marks and were consequently shortlisted to the request of proposal stage.
The deadline for the submission of technical and financial bid was March 15, 2019, he said, stressing that the BPE on that date received technical and financial proposals from three firms and consortia out of the nine that prequalified.
Okoh noted that only two firms, Quest Electricity Nigeria Limited and Sandstream Nig Limited were qualified for the Yola DisCo.
Speaking, the President/Chief Executive Officer, Transcorp Plc, Mr. Valentine Ozigbo, said that “it has been very obvious that governments can’t run business. They need the private sector to do so. I am glad that we are here to prove once again that point.”
He said that the purpose of his firm remains to impact lives and transform Nigeria.
According to him, the company’s ability to turn around the Transcorp Hilton Hotel and Transcorp Power Limited in Ughelli is an indication that the firm has what it takes to turn around the Afam Power plant.
Meanwhile, the representative of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Aisha Mahmud, noted that the power sector is presently grappling with numerous challenges such as liquidity, non-cost reflective tariff and others.
She however said that the regulator is working hard to ensure that there is a functional electricity sector and that by next year there is a high hope that everything would have been put in order for the efficiency of the industry.
Representatives of the Economics and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Directorate of State Services were at the ceremony to monitor its transparency.
