Adebayo Adelabu

The Tinubu-led Federal Government has announced plans to sell off the five electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos) as power outage persists.

This was confirmed by the Minister of Power Adebayo Adelabu on Monday, April 22.

He said banks and the Asset Management Company (AMCON), which have been managing these DisCos, having taken over because of the failure of the management to repay loans, lack the technical capacity.

The sale to reputable technical power operators is expected to be completed within three months, he added.

Those affected are Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) under the management of the United Bank of Africa (UBA), Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC), Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company and Kano Electricity Distribution Company manage by Fidelity Bank, Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IEDC) is under the AMCON management.

Investors hold 60 per cent of shares in the DisCos. The Federal Government holds the remaining 40 per cent.

DisCos have blamed the blackout on low allocation from the national grid and gas shortages to generating companies (GenCos), among others.