BPE dispels rumour of BEDC, Discos licence renewal
The Director General, Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Alex Okoh has declared that contrary to suggestions in some quarters, there is indeed nothing on-going in terms of contract or license renewal for any of the Distribution companies (Discos), including BEDC Electricity Plc.
Speaking during a Press briefing in Benin, Okoh appealed to civil society groups, residents and all stakeholders in the BEDC franchise areas to exercise restraint and allow the company perform its function of electricity distribution without any hindrance, even as he described BEDC as one of the best managed discos.
“The government respects contracts and would not do anything to jeopardize the operations of companies that federal Government had willingly entered into agreements with, including the Discos,” the DG said.
“We have followed the development in Benin Disco with keen interest and indeed the attention of the Bureau has been drawn to certain erroneous information over the purported renewal of the licenses issued to the Discos, including BEDC Electricity Plc for the purpose of retail distribution of electricity” Okoh said.
The Nigerian government privatised the nation’s power assets in 2013 as part of the unbundling of the former Power Holding Company of Nigeria. The move was part of efforts to raise power generation in Africa’s most populous country, where inadequate electricity supply has been seen as a major impediment to economic progress.
Okoh distinguished between a performance agreement review and what has been claimed as a review of the operating licence of BEDC. He revealed that the performance agreement stipulates the milestones that the core investors should achieve within a specified period, while the issue of licensing was a different matter and is being handled by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).
The BPE boss said that all discos sold were thus also required to acquire NERC license in addition to purchasing the privatised company and its assets. “For BEDC, there is an existing 15-year NERC licence broken into 10 years plus 5year, with another 10 years’ renewal option at the end of the 15- year period, that is, a licence of up to 25 years”
He said the federal government was implementing a comprehensive power sector recovery programme aimed at addressing the challenges of the sector many of which are faced by, but not peculiar to, the Benin franchise areas.
Okoh added that the government had been working with its international partners to reposition the power sector and noted that BEDC in particular had benefited from the services of international institutions such as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) aimed at getting the best electricity services to the people.
Managing Director/CEO, BEDC Plc, Funke Osibodu, disclosed that 27 applications were received for theMeter Asset Provider (MAP) across the franchise states, and added that after a screening exercise, seven were chosen and are currently going through the financial bid review process.
On the Ondo South network rehabilitation project, she disclosed that the federal government through the National Independent Power Project (NIPP) has joined forces with BEDC for the speedy rehabilitation of the whole network.
“According to the new schedule of the joint effort, the first phase is from Ore Junction to Okitipupa where 19 communities had been connected to the grid in Ondo South including Ore, Odigbo, Adaja and Liyetu among others. In Ondo North, 34 communities have been connected including Gedegede, Ikun, Eriti, Oke-Agbe, Ikare, Arigidi, Oba-Akoko and Ikaram among others,” she said.
Speaking on the disruption in power supply in some areas of Benin, Osibodu explained that the disruption affected areas such as Evbuotubu, Oliha, Uwelu, Ikpoba dam, Okhoro, Upper Lawani and part of GRA. She announced that BEDC had put in place a contingency plan to connect customers in the affected areas to existing functional feeders as a temporary measure pending when the faulty power transformer will either be repaired or replaced.