$72m: Jos DisCo for sale

Mr Tukur Modibbo, the Chairman, Jos Electricity Distribution Company Plc says the management of the company is ready to sell it off due to poor returns on investment.
Modibbo said this while fielding questions on the sideline of a news conference organised by the Association of Electricity Distributors (ANED) in Abuja on Tuesday.
Modibbo decried the poor rate of non returns on investors’ funds in the distribution value chain of the power sector.
He said the balance sheet of the DisCos were not bankable, hence their inability to fully obtain the required funding to invest in their distribution networks.
According to him, Jos DisCos is ready to give up its license if the Federal Government could refund the money invested in the utility.
“We bought Jos DisCo for $82 million, we are ready to give it away for $72 million if we see buyers now, if government refund the investors their money, we will quit the business.’’
He, however, called on the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola to meet with the investors to hear their challenges with a view to evolving possible solutions to the challenges in the sector.
Also speaking, Mr John Ayodele, the Chief Operating Officer Ibadan DisCo, said the DisCos could not embark on physical due diligence of the privatised power entities before taking over the assets.
“There was no accurate technical, physical due diligence on what DisCos bought.’’
The DisCos paid $1.4 billion (about N427 billion) to acquire the distribution assets in 2013.