AMCON May Sell IBEDC to Viable Investors for Efficiency

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

To make Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC) more efficient, it must be sold to viable investors, the chief executive of the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), Mr Gbenga Alade, has said.

In a chat with journalists in Lagos on Monday, Mr Alade said the state of things at the company was alarming and to make it more profitable, it must be sold to people “who have deep pockets.”

“In the power sector, we have Ibadan DisCo, which is under AMCON. We’ve tried as much as possible to get that resolved. And we’re in the process. We are yet to conclude the sale, but we are making very good headway in resolving Ibadan DisCo,” he said.

“I believe that Ibadan Disco is the largest disco that we have because it goes across so many states like Ogun, including all the industrial areas of Ogun State.

“We believe that it can be made more efficient if sold to people with deep pockets who can invest, not people who just buy and not invest; they don’t have money to invest.

“With people who have deep pockets to invest in making that company more efficient and more effective, it will go a long way to helping the power sector,” Mr Alade said.

In January 2022, AMCON took control of IBEDC because of insolvency and there have been efforts to revive the company without much success.

Mr Alade was drafted to AMCON about five months ago, but he said from the look of things, a new owner is needed for the energy distribution firm to provide quality service delivery to its coverage areas, which span to Osun, Kwara and parts of Niger, Ekiti and Kogi States.

IBEDC is currently under the control of Integrated Energy Distribution and Marketing Limited, the receiver and manager as directed by a court judgement of September 2021.