03 March 2014, Abuja – The National Council on Privatization (NCP) and the governing board of the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) at the weekend approved the opening of the financial bids of the 42 prequalified bidders out of 66 bidding consortia for the 80 per cent equity in the 10 NIPP power plants.
The joint meeting in Abuja that was chaired by Vice President Mohammed Namadi Sambo that gave the nod also directed that the bids be opened on March 7th, 2014 in keeping with the published timeline for the transaction.
A statement of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) which made this disclosure yesterday, noted that the 42 bidders that have been prequalified met the criteria set forth in the requests for proposal (RFP) and passed the due diligence verification conducted on technically qualified bidders.
The Vice President in his remarks commended the Joint Technical Transaction Committee (JTTC) chaired by Governor of Benue State, Mr. Gabriel Suswan, noting that the PHCN transaction, “was a highly transparent process and government had assured investors participating in the NIPP transaction that the same level of transparency will be replicated”.
The JTTC is made up of the Technical Committee of NCP and Technical Committee of NDPHC.
The NIPP Privatization is a joint transaction between the NCP and the Governing Board of NDPHC. The 10 plants are jointly owned by the three tiers of government; local, state and federal governments with the Federal Government contributing 47% equity stake and the local and state governments with the remaining 53 per cent equity.
The Vice President further noted that the privatization of the 10 NIPP power plants is the first time the private sector, National Assembly, Federal, State and Local governments are joining forces to ensure an all inclusive transaction process, following a highly successful investors’ fora spanning five countries.
He said all the three tiers of government and the private sector in Nigeria were continuing to collaborate in the privatization process of the power plants which is being jointly offered for sale by the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) and Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) to ensure that the same level of transparency acclaimed the world over in the PHCN transaction was replicated in the NIPP transaction process.
According to him, if Nigeria was going to be among the 20 largest economies in the world by the year 2020, the right steps must be taken, assuring that the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan is committed to ensuring that those right steps are taken going forward in implementing the Transformation Agenda; adding that this transaction is one such big step.
The statement recalled that 66 proposals were earlier received from prospective investors interested in the 10 NIPP plants on November 8, 2013,
An inter-agency evaluation team, including security agencies met from 12 to 22 November to evaluate the proposals, the evaluation report was subjected to the scrutiny of the Joint Transaction Committee and the Joint Technical Transaction Committee before approval by the Joint NCP/NDPHCN Board meeting. The Joint NCP/NDPHC board therefore approved that 42 out of the 66 were prequalified to continue to the financial bid opening stage.
In order to be deemed technically qualified, the bidders must meet the following criteria in three broad areas as set out in the requests for proposal; namely: completeness and substantial responsiveness; ability to finance the acquisition and relevant experience and quality of business plan.
The 10 power plants being offered for sale are: Alaoji , Benin , Calabar , Egbema , Gbarain, Geregu , Ogorode , Olorunsogo , Omoku and Omotoshho
– The Nation