Mr Gabriel Suswam, the Chairman of Senate Committee on Power, on Monday, revealed that efforts are on to recover 216 assets from the 11 Electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos).
Suswam, who alongside other members of the committee was on an oversight function to the head office (annex) of the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) Wuse11 Abuja, did not give details of the assets but frowned at the development.
Mr. Gabriel Suswam
He, however, expressed happiness over the AEDC management’s admittance that the company was meant to pay rent on the government property it occupied.
His words, “We are here today to oversee what we have been told by NELMCO (Nigeria Electricity Liability Management Company). They told us that some assets were handed over to them when the company was incorporated and we need to be sure that what they are telling us are the correct things.
“Here is the asset of the government (referring to the AEDC’s annex head office) that the privatisation was handed over to them. We want to be sure that the asset is with them more (so) that it is occupied by the Abuja Distribution Company (AEDC), which is a private company.
“We are satisfied that the building is here and the MD of Abuja Distribution Company also has accepted that this building belongs to the government and that they are tenants here in the interim until they will be able to procure it but that is if eventually they win the bid to buy the building.
Managing Director of NELMCO, Mr Adebayo Fagbemi, who briefed journalists, said 216 assets have been lined up in batches for recovery from the DisCos and would be disposed of.
He disclosed: “The first phase of assets that we are bringing up for sale are 52 in number and there is another second batch that we are working on, they are 106 in number and there will be a third batch of about 58. “So if you add these, it will give you the total assets that were transferred to NELMCO. When you look at our transfer instruments, it actually defines assets. In this particular case, we are looking at non-core assets basically.
“We have the core and non-core assets. The non-core assets are those that are not very critical in the business of power. They are buildings, lands, jetty, golf course, guest houses. These are part of what accumulated and were called non-core assets’’.
Speaking earlier, the Abuja Electric Distribution company’s Managing Director, Dr. Ernest Mupwaya, who admitted that his company occupied the two of NELMCO’s assets, said his management was interested in procuring them.
Mupwaya, who also disclosed that AEDC owed NELMCO, said the rent of the assets was N40 million per month.
He said: “AEDC is owing NELMCO; the rent is like N40 million per month and we are in discussion with them to offset this and it is part of our seriousness that we are engaging them in buying the buildings.”
