The federal government has granted Transcorp Power as the preferred bidder for the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company.
He spoke on Tuesday at the commissioning of the Afam 3-fast power plant in Oyigbo LGA, Rivers state.
“At the meeting of the National Council on Privatisation (NCP), the council approved Transcorp Power consortium as the preferred bidder of the acquisition of the Abuja Distribution Company,” he said.
OduNews reports that the federal government formally presented the post-privatisation Discharge Certificate to Transcorp Power Limited, the owner of the 972 megawatts (MW) thermal power generation plant located in Ughelli, Delta State.
This was just as the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, yesterday, reviewed the current power situation in the country and concluded that serious private sector participation was the only viable approach to solving Nigeria’s serious power crisis.
Transcorp Power was delisted from the routine evaluation and monitoring of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), marking a major achievement for the company.
This followed the fulfilment of all privatisation conditions set by the National Council on Privatisation by Transcorp Power, owned by Africa’s billionaire businessman, renowned philanthropist and promoter of Africapitalism, Mr. Tony Elumelu, after the purchase of the power plant in 2013.
Speaking at the certificate presentation meeting called by the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) held yesterday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, attended by Osinbajo, who is the Chairman of NCP and the Director General of the BPE, Dr Alex Okoh amongst other, Elumelu promised to invest massively in the power sector to help Nigeria’s industrialisation.
Transnational Corporation acquired Ughelli Power Plc, now Transcorp Power Limited, from the federal government on November 1, 2013, during the privatisation of the power sector.
At the time of acquisition, the plant had an available capacity of 160MW. Transcorp invested and increased the available capacity to 680.83MW, representing a 227 per cent increase within four years of takeover, surpassing the five-year target of 670MW set by the BPE.
Transcorp Power Limited is a member of West African Power Pool and a participant in the ECOWAS Regional Electricity Market. Today, Transcorp Power supplies electricity to the ECOWAS Regional Market.
With the issuance of the Discharge Certificate to Transcorp Power, it would no longer be subjected to post-privatisation monitoring and is now the first privatised power generation company to achieve this milestone since the power sector privatisation commenced in 2013.
One of the key targets set for Transcorp was a minimum available capacity of 670MW, which is achieved cumulating to the presentation of the Discharge Certificate to it by the NCP.
