Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) says it plans to sell the loss making Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC) to more efficient investors capable of turning the entity around.
AMCON Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Gbenga Alade, disclosed this at an interactive session with media executives in Lagos.
He told journalists that the only way to rescue the power company is to sell it off.
“When I took office five months ago, I reviewed the cases before AMCON, and the power sector is one,” he said.
The AMCON boss noted that the corporation has tried to resolve the issues affecting the IBEDC, but the process has yet to be concluded.
AMCON took over IBEDC in 2022 following a September 2021 court judgment that granted preservative orders in favour of the debt retrieving agency as the receiver/manager of Integrated Energy Distribution and Marketing Limited.
Alade disclosed that IBEDC would be sold to investors with ”deep pockets. ”
“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,” Alade noted.
Four Discos are at present under the management of banks while the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company is under the management of the United Bank of Africa, Fidelity Bank manages Benin, Kaduna, and Kano DisCos.
This follows their inability to repay loans to the financial institutions.