By Tony Obiechina, Abuja
Transcorp Power Consortium on Tuesday emerged the winner of the commercial and financial bid for the privatization of Afam Power PLC.
The chairman, Technical Committee of the National Council on Privatization (NCP), Mr. Mohammed K. Ahmed, represented by Dr Ayo Teriba who announced this at the end of the bid ceremony in Abuja said, the bid submitted by Transcorp Consortium was N105.3billion.
According to him, “the runner up is the bid submitted by the Diamond Stripes for N102.4 billion. It is the runner up and reserved bidder. Transcorp Consortium winning the bid, and Diamond Stripes coming first runner up.”
He also announced that the bid for Yola Electricity Distribution Company (YAEDC), was won by Quest Electricity, the sole bidder with its offer of N19billion.
He disclosed that three prospective investors: Diamond Stripes Power Consortium, Transcorp Power Consortium and Unicorn Power Generation Consortium bidded for the acquisition of Federal Government 100 per cent shareholding in Afam Power Plc.
Ahmed also disclosed 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 was disqualified for not submitting a bank guarantee alongside the commercial proposal as required by the BPE.
This led to the 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.
Earlier, the Director General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE),Mr. Alex Okoh, had recalled that for the acquisition of the YEDC shares, and in line with the approval of the NCP, the BPE, called for expression of interests on August 16, 2018.
According to him, Wednesday, September 16, 2018, was the deadline for the expression of interest but at the deadline 12 firms expressed interest in Afam Power.
He stated 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. He said the deadline for the submission of technical and financial bid was March 15, 2019, pointing out that the BPE on that date received technical and financial proposals from three firms and consortia out of the nine that prequalified.
According to him, only two firms, Quest Electricity Nigeria Limited and Sandstream Nig Limited were qualified for the Yola DisCo.
Speaking after the winners were announced, the President/Chief Executive Officer, Transcorp Plc, Mr. Valentine Ozigbo, said, “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.”
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.
In her comments, 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 present at the ceremony to ensure its transparency.
