Nigeria’s electricity regulator, NERC, suspends management of Ibadan-based regional power distributor, IBEDC’s
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Nigeria’s electricity regulatory agency, NERC has suspended the entire management of Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC) because it failed to recover N5.7 billion interest-free loan facility given to Integrated Energy and Distribution Marketing Group Limited (IEDMG), a core investor in the DisCo last year.
According to a statement released by the commission, IBEDC had received N11.367 billion under the CBN-Nigerian Electricity Market Stabilization Facility (NEMSF), but diverted part of the fund to its core investor, IEDMG.
The purpose of the fund was to meet market obligations and reduce aggregate, technical, commercial and collection (ATC&C) losses.
IEDMG then agreed to pay the loan in installments, which it started in January 2018 and paid a total of N430 million in the first three months of the year but no payments have been made since 20th April, 2018, the commission said.
This negligence and blatant misappropriation of funds led to the suspension of the executive, non-executive directors and chief financial officer of the DisCo.
The commission has mandated the suspended board to call an extra-ordinary general meeting of the company, to be held in the next 21 days to appoint a new managerial board for the company. It is also to appoint a consultant who would review the performance of the new board.
It also threatened to cancel its license if it fails to adhere to any of its orders.
It also failed to recover unauthorized interest payments totaling N47.97 million from Oceanic Marine Solutions Group.