The Bureau of Public Enterprises on Thursday named members of the interim management team for the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company which was taken over recently by the United Bank for Africa.
It outlined the interim management team to include Bada Akinwumi, as managing director; Sani Usman, chief business officer; Babajide Ibironke, chief finance officer; Donald Etim, chief marketing officer; and Femi Zacchaeus, chief technical officer.
It said in a statement issued in Abuja that the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission had already approved the appointment of the interim management team for the power company.
In approving the appointment of the new interim management for the AEDC, the BPE quoted the Chairman, NERC, 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.”
The NERC and BPE had sacked the former management team of the AEDC and approved the appointment of an interim team to manage the power distribution company on the basis of legal processes arising from the failure of the core investor to meet its obligations to a lender (UBA).
Both agencies explained that there had been an ongoing dispute among competing factions of the AEDC’s majority shareholder/core investor known as KANN Utility Company Limited).
They stated that the United Bank for Africa had acted as mandated lead arranger, underwriting the entire facility of $122m, about N20bn then for Kann Utilities acquisition of the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company.
“During the course of the intractable crisis, the AEDC not only struggled to meet its obligations to the market under the terms and conditions of its licence but was also unable to meet its obligations to key stakeholders in the organisation including staff,” the government agencies stated.
This, according to them, culminated into the industrial action by members of the Nigerian Union of Electricity Employees that resulted in a total service disruption on December 6, 2021 for over 14 hours in AEDC’s network area.
They explained that the provision of electricity supply in AEDC’s network area was only restored after the intervention of the Minister of Power, NERC and BPE following an agreement with the union on the terms for the suspension of the industrial action.
