Taleveras, Northwest emerge preferred bidders for Afam, Kaduna power plants

The Federal Government yesterday announced Taleveras Group and Northwest Power Limited as preferred bidders for Afam Generation Company Plc and Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company Plc in a transparently conducted bidding process.

When the commercial bids for Afam Generation Company (GENCO) were opened at the ceremony which was attended by key stakeholders in the power sector and representatives of the bidding companies in Abuja, Taleveras Group became the preferred bidder with an offer of $260,050,000 (about N4.16billion) while TES Power emerged the reserved bidder with an offer of $2 22,900,000.

Similarly, the commercial bid for the privatisation of Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company Plc, was won by Northwest Power Limited who came tops with 29.26 per cent based on the Aggregate Technical, Commercial and Collection loss reduction (ATC&C) proposal used, while LEDA Consortium scored 26.71 per cent, NAHCO Consortium 22.83 per cent, Incar Consortium 22.75 per cent, Copperbelt Consortium 21.07 per cent and Axis Power Distribution Limited with 17.40 per cent.

With the development, the privatisation process of the 17 Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) successor companies which began in December 2010 and being supervised by the Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE) may be gradually inching to a successful end.

Speaking on the bidding procedures, the Chairman of the Technical Committee of the National Council on Privatisation, (NCP), Mr. Atedo Peterside, said the Council decided to use the ATC&C method for the selection of core investors for distribution companies because ATC& C loss levels will provide Nigerian consumers and other stakeholders with specific parameters with which to measure the outcome of the power sector reform and privatisation.

Peterside said everything will be collated and due diligence tests carried out for consistency and then the result will be announced very soon by the NCP and that would conclude the process.

He explained: 'Evaluation process will be carried out by relevant agencies and coordinated by BPE, the result of which will be submit ted to NCP for appropriate decision making in accordance with the provisions of the RFP.

They will be subjected to consistency tests and divided into two categories: bids in which ATC&C loss reduction proposal is less than 50 per cent and those where it is 50 per cent or mo.

'Bidders in the second category will be subjected to a further review, while where there is only one bidder who has passed the Consistency Tests, the 50 per cent rule does not apply. All bidders will be ranked to aid NCP to decide according to the provisions of RFP' Peterside added.

The Federal Government is expected to realise N197.25 billion as total proceeds from the sale of 60 per cent of the 11 DISCOs.

In his remarks, the Director General of BPE, Benjamin Dikki, described the event as another testimony of the success of the reforms of the power sector that began with the constitution of the Electric Power Sector Implementation Committee.