The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has announced the sack of all the directors in Kaduna Electricity Distribution Plc (KAEDC) over its failure to offset debt owed to the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET). This was contained in a document dated 1 January, signed by the NERC Chairman, Sanusi Garba, and Vice Chairman, Musiliu Oseni. The commission stated that the order takes effect from 1 January and remains in force until amended or revoked by subsequent orders issued by the commission. KAEDC is among five DisCos that were taken over by their funders after the core investors were unable to pay back the borrowed funds used to acquire the company during privatization in 2013.
Recall that the Managing Director of the company, Yusuf Yahaya, had announced his resignation from the company on Saturday. The order stated that the company owed N110bn to the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trade (NBET) and TCN’s Market Operator (MO) from 2015 till date.
The order stated that the receivership, headed by Afrexim bank, had been given 60 days' notice to state why its license should not be canceled with another 30 days given in July last year. The order therefore stated that the failure of the company to get a new owner to enable it to meet its financial obligations has led to “all directors of KAEDC are hereby removed from office and the board of directors stands dissolved in the exercise of powers vested in the Commission by section 75 of the Electricity Act (EA).”
It stated that Dr. Umar Abubakar Hashidu is hereby appointed as the administrator of KAEDC in furtherance to section 75 of the EA. “The administrator shall be the de facto chief executive officer of KAEDC and shall be responsible for the management of the day-to-day affairs of the utility pending the finalization of the sale of the undertaking to a new core investor.
“The administrator shall work with a team of special directors that shall constitute non-executive directors of the board for governance purposes. The following are hereby appointed as special directors for KAEDC; Alex A. Okoh, Chairman, Kabir Adamu, Sharfuddeen Zubair Mahmoud, John Ayodele, and Rahila Thomas,” the order stated.
It added that the executive management team that shall work with the administrator would be constituted by the commission and announced in due course. “The Commission shall administer the sale of the undertaking in accordance with the provisions of the EA based on the highest and best price offered for the undertaking,” it said.
