BPE Names Akinwumi AEDC Interim MD

Other members of the Interim Management named , yesterday, were: Sani Usman-  Interim Chief Business Officer; Babajide Ibironke, Interim Chief Finance Officer; Donald Etim, Interim Chief Marketing Officer; and      Femi Zachaeus,  Interim Chief Technical Officer.

The appointment was contained in a statement by Amina Tukur Othman,Head, Public Communications of the BPE.

According to the Bureau, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), the regulator in the power sector, has approved the appointment of the interim management team for the Abuja Disco.

The Chairman of NERC, Sanusi Garba in approving the appointment of the new AEDC Interim Management was quoted as saying that the decision was,  “pursuant to the earlier fit and proper review of your (BPE’s) pool of nominees and in the context  of Business continuity  framework of the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI)”.

NERC and BPE had sacked the former management team of the AEDC and approved the appointment of   an interim team to manage  the power  distribution company   on the basis of legal  processes  arising  from the failure   of the core investor  to meet its obligations   to United Bank for Africa (UBA) its major lender.

NERC and BPE in a joint statement on Wednesday, signed by Sanusi Garba and Alex Okoh, Chairman and Director General respectively, stated that there has been dispute amongst competing factions of AEDC’s core investor (KANN Utility Company Limited) which eventually spilled over with the lender.

UBA had provided the loan to KANN for the acquisition of  majority shares  during the  AEDC privatisation exercise  in  2013.

UBA had acted as Mandated Lead Arranger, underwriting the entire facility of $122million, about N20 billion then for Kann Utilities acquisition of the Disco.

During the course of the intractable crisis, AEDC not only struggled to meet its obligations to the market under the terms and conditions of its licence but was also unable to meet its obligations to key stakeholders in the organisation, including staff, culminating in the industrial action by members of the Nigerian Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE).

Eventually, this resulted in a total service disruption on 6th December 2021 for over 14 hours in AEDC’s network area.

The provision of electricity supply in AEDC’s network area was only restored after the intervention of the Ministry of Power, NERC and BPE following an agreement with the union on the terms for the suspension of the industrial action.

BPE clarified that arising from KANN’s inability to service its acquisition loan and the ensuing dispute over the servicing of the loan from UBA, the lender exercised its rights by appointing a Receiver/Manager over KANN.

It added, “Stakeholders including NERC, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and BPE had on several times worked to broker an amicable resolution between the contending parties. The protracted resolution of the dispute exacerbated the state of affairs at AEDC resulting in an industrial action and a total blackout in the service area for over 14 hours.

“It then became apparent that decisive steps were required to address the matter and BPE agreed with the lender’s request to exercise its powers as Receiver/Manager    over KANN by exercising   its powers over the 60% equity in AEDC as a means to recover the acquisition loan granted by the Bank.”