The federal government has ordered the sale of five electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos), namely; Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC), Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC), Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company (KEDCO), Kano Electricity Distribution Company and Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC) within three months, to reputable technical power companies.

The affected DisCos were taken over by banks and the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) from their original investors/owners, following their failure to repay loans obtained from lenders.

The five DisCos currently under the management of AMCON and banks are AEDC, which is currently under the management of the United Bank of Africa (UBA), BEDC, which was taken over by the Fidelity Bank and Afreximbank in 2022, KEDCO, Kano DisCo and IBEDC taken over by AMCON.

The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, who confirmed the development on Monday to the Senate Committee on Power, during an oversight visit to the power ministry in Abuja, explained that the power assets are technical and should be managed by technical experts.

Adelabu said: “We have put pressure on NERC to make sure that they raise the bar of regulatory activities on electricity distribution companies (DisCos). If they have to withdraw licences for non-performance, why not? If they have to change the board and management, why not?”

“All the DisCos that are still under AMCON and bank lenders, within the next three months they must be sold to technical power operators with good reputation in utility management. We can no longer afford AMCON or the banks to run our Discos. This is a technical industry and must be run by technical experts.”