Nigeria’s quest for the privatisation of 10 newly-built thermal generation companies, built under the National Integrated Power Projects (NIPPs), received a boost Friday as they were sold to winners during the unveiling of bids in Abuja, the Nigerian capital.
The NIPP privatization is a joint transaction between Nigeria’s National Council on Privatization (NCP) and the governing board of Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC).
The 10 plants whose 80 per cent equity was sold, are jointly owned by Nigeria’s three tiers of government with local government owing 47 per cent of the 80 per cent equity while the nation’s 774 local governments and the 36 state governments have a total equity of 53 per cent.
Altogether, the thermal generating companies were sold to private investors for US$5.8 billion.
At the Financial bid for the 10 NDPHC generation companies, 42 bidders certified as technically qualified to be considered to acquire the 80% equity of the companies were represented in the process, widely certified as “transparent.”
Chairman of the Joint Technical Transaction Committee (JTTC) and Governor of Benue State, Mr. Gabriel Suswam, said the transparent process was “to assure investors of the seriousness of government to transform the power sector”.
In the final bidding, AITEO Consortium, that initially bided US$680 million which was below the reserved price, won the Alaoji generation company in Abia State, South East of Nigeria, as they were the only company that expressed interest. They won it on a second bid of US$902 million.
EMA Consortium won Benin generating plant with a bid price US$580 million, followed closely by Index Consortium, who bided US$575 million.
The generating plant located in Calabar, Cross River State, was won by EMA Consortium with a bid of US$625 million while the bid of US$415,075 million by Dozzy Integrated Power limited won the Egbema power generation plant in Imo State, South Eastern Nigeria.
Gbarain power plant which, had six investors bidding for it, was won by KDI Energy Resources with a financial bid of US$340 million while Geregu plant in North Central Kogi State had four (4) bidders but was won by Seoul Electric Power limited with a financial bid of US$690.2 million.
Ogoroda power plant was won by Daniel Power Consortium with an interesting bid of US$531,777,777. The reserve bidder for the power plant is ESOP Power Limited with a final bid of US$510 million.
Olorunsogo power plant in south West Nigeria fetched the National Council on Privatization (NCP) extra one million dollars as one of the bidders, AITEO Consortium, withdrew from the process, thereby forfeiting the prequalification deposit of US$1 million.
ENL Energy Consortium won the company with a financial bid of US$751.24 million.
Shayobe International limited Consortium won Omoku plant in Rivers State with a financial bid of US$318,710,840, while for the Omotosho power plant in South West Nigeria, which had nine bidders, was won by Omotosho Electricity Company with a bid price of US$659,999,000.
The Director General of Bureau for Public Enterprise (BPE), Mr Benjamin Dikki, said “every bidder was given a free hand as the process was transparently carried out so as to ensure that the buyer is really competent to handle the plants.”
