There are a number of companies hoping to win multiple bids from the privatisation of Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) electri-city distribution com-panies that have been put up for sale by Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE).

The 11 distribution companies, created from the unbundling of PHCN, include Abuja, Benin, Enugu, Eko, Ibadan, Ikeja, Jos, Kaduna, Kano, Port Harcourt and Yola distribution companies.

However, the breakdown of 54 bidders that met the July 31 deadline for the submission of technical and financial proposals for the purchase of these companies showed that some of them submitted more than one bid.

The highest number of bids was submitted by Integrated Energy Distribution & Marketing Ltd, which bidded for four of the companies including Eko, Ibadan, Ikeja and Yola.

A total of four companies, among them, Rockson Engineering Ltd; Skipper Nigeria Ltd; ENL Consortium Ltd and KEPCO/NEDC Consor-tium bidded for three each. Rockson Engin-eering bidded for Benin, Ikeja and Port Harcourt DISCOs; Skipper Nigeria Ltd put in for Abuja, Ibadan and Kaduna; ENL put in for Abuja, Eko and Ibadan; while KEPCO/NEDC put in for Eko, Ibadan, and Ikeja respectively.

About six other companies including OANDO consortium, Interstate Electric Ltd, RENSMART Power Ltd, West Power & Gas, NAHCO Power consor-tium and Honeywell Energy Resources International Ltd, all bidded for two compan-ies each.

Further breakdown of the bids showed that more companies were interested in the Ikeja Disco which attracted 10 bids, possibly because it is the largest in the country. This is followed by Eko, which attracted nine bids, Benin and Ibadan had seven while Abuja had five and Enugu four respectively.

The fact that the northern DISCOs, Kaduna and Yola, got very low bids, two each, may not be unconnected with the insecurity situation in that region in view of the mayhem unleashed by Boko Haram.

Furthermore, Port Harcourt DISCO which experts expected to attract more bids in view of its status as Nigeria’s energy hub, also had a poor outing with just three bids which may be linked with the crisis in the Niger Delta region, which is being resolved through presidential amnesty.

According to the BPE website, “prospective core investors who must be local and or international power distributors or investors with power distributors as technical partners, will be responsible for operating the distribution companies, making the necessary investments to improve the distribution network and customer service in line with the objectives of the Federal Government.

All transactions regarding the bids for either the DISCOs or the generating companies, according to BPE timeline were expected to finalise in the last quarter of 2012.

“The announcement of the preferred bidders for the generating companies is October 9, 2012 while October 23 2012 is the date for announcement of the preferred bidders for the DISCOs.”    

However, the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) has warned employees of PHCN to reject letter of severance benefit advice that was sent to all staff of PHCN by the Federal Government through the Special Adviser on Media to the Minister of Power, Agbuegu Anikwe.

The letter contains what constitutes the total terminal benefits and severance package for their services to PHCN and to advise the government on any error that might have resulted from the calculations of their benefits.

“With letters of advice on retirement benefits now being distributed to each of the employees of the 17 PHCN successor companies and any TCN staff members opting to retire now, the NUEE leadership has used force to prevent PHCN employees from receiving the letters and knowing their true contents. The NUEE officers want the PHCN staff to remain brainwashed and ignorant of the true state of affairs,” he said in a statement.

“The Ministry of Power would like, once again, to remind the NUEE officials that there must be a limit to agitation and propaganda. Nigeria is a country governed by the rule of law, and not by the whims and caprices of a handful of professional trade unionists that have never worked in the power sector and, therefore, do not have much stake in the power sector. The NUEE leadership should henceforth work within the confines of law and public morality or face the consequences of their action,” he concluded.