19 August 2013, Abuja – The National Council on Privatisation, NCP, and the Board of the Niger Delta Power Holding Company Limited, NDPHC, have approved the pre-qualification of 82 consortia for power plants.
Among them are Dangote Industries Limited/Sewa West Africa Limited, Dangote Industries Limited/ESSAR Power, Dangote Industries Limited/Sogenal Limited and 78 other consortia for the purchase of 80% equity in the 10 National Integrated Power Projects, NIPP.
According to a statement by the Head, Public Communications, Mr. Chigbo Anichebe, the appoval was from the 386 expressions of interest, EOIs, submitted by 82 of the 110 consortia that earlier expressed interest in the acquisition of 80% equity in the power plants.
The NIPPs are jointly owned by the Federal, State and Local Governments.
The council, according to the statement, approved the prequalification at its meeting last Monday.
The 82 consortia have been prequalified to move to the Request for Proposal, RFP, stage of the transaction.
Some of the consotia are: Omotosho Electric Energy Company, SEPCO-Pacific Energy Partners Limited, PPN Power Generating Company Ltd, AFC and Globeleq Consortium, AFC, Globeleq & Vigeo Consortium, Spark Generation Power Company and Calls Power Consortium and Transcorp-GE Consortium.
Also on the list are: Neon Electric Power Consortium, CET Power Consortium Azura Benin Generation Consortium, Azura Calabar Generation Consortium, WorleyParsons/DeltaAfrik, Arrow Capital/WorleyParsons Consortium Power Ventures Consortium, Paragon Consortium, OPG Power Ventures (with GE International), OPG Power Ventures (with Sogex), OPG Power Ventures (with Thomassen Holding Limited and Marine Power Limited) and others.
Meanwhile, BPE noted that the number of expressions of interest for each of the 10 generation plants include: Gbarain Generation Company – 46,
Benin Generation Company – 44, Omotosho Generation Company – 42, Egbema Generation Company – 41, Omoku Generation Company – 41, Geregu Generation Company – 39, Calabar Generation Company – 37, Ogorode Generation Company – 36, Alaoji Generation Company – 30 and Olorunsogo Generation Company – 30.
The statement recalled that at the close of the deadline for the submission of expressions of interest, EOIs, by prospective investors on 19 July, 110 consortia submitted expressions of interest.
BPE said: “Two evaluation teams were thereafter constituted to evaluate the submissions based on the approved guidelines. The guidelines provided that to be technically qualified, bidders must show evidence of experience in operating at least 300 MW of thermal generation plant for at least three years and to be deemed financially qualified, meet a tangible net worth threshold of $100-$200 million depending, on the size of plant they wish to be prequalified for, among other requirements.
“Following the evaluation, 82 of the 110 submissions were successful and have been approved to continue to the Request for Proposal (RFP) stage
The Joint Board equally approved the issuance of the request for proposals (RFP) to the prequalified bidders from the 19th of August.
“Joint Board further approved the recommendation of the Joint Technical Transaction Committee (JTTC) to allow Technical Services Providers (TSP), with no equity stake in the consortia, to participate in the privatisation process with as many bidders as it chooses.
“The Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) and Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) are partners in the joint sale transaction process for the sale of the 10 power plants. While NCP and the BPE are legally authorized to sell Federal Government’s 47% shares, NDPHC has the authorisation of the States and LGA’s to sell 53% of their shares. The joint meeting was chaired by Vice President Mohammed Namadi Sambo.”
– John Ofikhenua, The Nation
