Nigeria has announced plans to sell the Geregu, Omotosho and Calabar power plants to willing investors next year.
The Director General of the Bureau for Public Enterprises, Alex Okoh, who dropped the hint in Abuja last weekend said the country hopes to rake in as much as N434 billion from the sale.
Addressing the Senate Committee on Privatization and Commercialization during the budget defence session, Oko gave a break down that whereas Geregu power plant would be sold for N140.7 billion, and the Omotosho power plant will go for N151.4 billion, the Calabar power plant will be sold for N143.4 billion.
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The three power plants were built under the National Integrated Power Projects (NIPP) by the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC), of which the proceeds from the sale of the three power plants would be paid into the coffers of NDPHC, the BPE said in the document presented to the senate committe.
The 434 megawatts (MW) Geregu plant is in Kogi state, and the 450MW Omotosho is in Ondo state, whereas the 561MW Calabar plant is in Odukpani near Calabar in Cross River state.
The Bureau for Public Enterprise is expected to reappear before the Senate committee this week for details on the proposed sale of the three power plants and its revenue projection for 2021.
The Senate committee, which is chaired by Senator Theodore Orji, had last week demanded an investigation into the sale of some of the federal government shares in the Afam and Geregu Power Plants to ensure that the country is not short changed in the transaction.
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The committee also asked the director-general of BPE to provide members with copies of the agreements, reports and approvals from the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) on the transactions of the Afam and Geregu power plants for review.
“We also found that in Geregu Power Plant, the Core investor already owned 51 percent shares, and that the transaction emanated from a request by the investor for additional 29% of the federal government and the residual 49%.
“There was no competition, and only BPE and their appointed transaction advisers know how the value was determined and sold for N13billion.
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“In Afam Power Plant, it was mentioned that there are actually two different Power Plants i.e Afam Power Plant and Afam Fast Power (a brand new plant) built by Seimen but yet to be inaugurated. Reports have it that it cost about $1million to build a megawatt of power plant,” the committee chairman said in his comments.
By Chibisi Ohakah, Abuja
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