United Bank for Africa acquired ownership of Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC). A new management team was appointed by the Bureau of Public Enterprises for the company, 24hours after the acquisition.
The members of the interim management team include Bada Akinwumi, as Managing Director; Sani Usman as the chief business officer; Babajide Ibironke, chief finance officer; Donald Etim, marketing officer; and Femi Zacchaeus, chief technical officer.
The BPE said in a statement made in Abuja that the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission had already approved the appointment of the interim management team for the power company.
Due to the company’s inability to honour the bank’s N20 billion loan taken out during the period of the privatization process in 2013, the federal government had approved the acquisition of the controlling stake in Abuja Electric Distribution Company by United Bank for Africa
The Abuja Electricity Distribution Company is the licensed public utility, serving end-use electricity to customers in the states of Kogi, Nasarawa, Niger and the Federal Capital Territory.
There had been an ongoing dispute between competing factions of AEDC’s majority shareholder / principal investor, Kann Utility Company Limited which had led UBA to provide the acquisition loan to Kann for the acquisition of majority stakes during the privatization exercise in 2013.
The Abuja Electricity Distribution Company, during the insoluble crisis, not only struggled to fulfil its obligations to the market according to the license terms and conditions but also has not been able to fulfil its obligations to key stakeholders in the organization, including staff. As a result, members of the Nigerian Union of Electricity Employees embarked on an industrial action that brought about the total disruption of service for more than 14 hours in the AEDC’s network.
In approving the appointment of AEDC’s new interim management, the BPE quoted NERC Chairman Sanusi Garba as saying that “It (the approval) is 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.”
