Aba Ring Fenced Area: FG Inaugurates Inter-Agency Committee

….For smooth hand over to Geometrics
The Federal Government has inaugurated an inter-agency committee to resolve all critical regulatory and operational issues surrounding the smooth transition and hand over of the Aba Ring-Fenced Area to Aba Power Ltd (APL)/Geometrics which was effected on February 16, 2022,
Inaugurating the Committee in Abuja, Director General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Mr. Alex A. Okoh noted that the Committee became necessary following the need to resolve certain issues which was not envisaged during the handing over of the Aba Ring Fenced Area to APL/Geometrics by Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC).
Okoh listed the issues that would be resolved by the Inter agency committee to include the Asset Transfer Agreement that presumed that APL/Geometrics would generate and distribute power, power allocation and tariff in the Franchise Area; the terms and conditions of EEDC’s vesting Contract with Nigeria Bulk Electricity Trading Company (NBET) which did not envisage APL/Geometrics and the Service Level Agreement with Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN).
Other issues to be resolved are the provision and requirements of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Loan Agreement and the attendant escrowed control of all EEDC bank accounts. the centralized Information Technology (IT) Infrastructure for Metering and Meter Data Bases, Billing and Billing Data Base, Enterprise Resource Planning System and Infrastructure and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) System in the Franchise Area;
While charging members of the Committee to discharge their mandate expeditiously, Okoh said that they were chosen in recognition of their wide experience and knowledge of the subject matter; and expressed confidence that they would carry out the assignment successfully.
The Committee which cuts across critical stakeholders, among them, the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading (NBET) Company, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN)- the Market Operator, is to conclude its assignment within 60 days. It is chaired by the Director, Energy at the BPE, Mallam Audu Uba Mohammed.
It would be recalled that an agreement was entered into among the Federal Government, National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) and Aba Power Ltd (APL) on April 28, 2005. The parties executed a supplemental agreement on August 31, 2006. The area of coverage delineated by NEPA through the lease agreement is referred to as Aba and Ariaria Business Units, to which the initial agreement gave an exclusive right to APL to operate within the area.
During the Privatization Programme of the Federal Government in 2013, Interstate Electric acquired 60% of the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC) from the BPE pursuant to a Share Sale and Purchase Agreement dated August 21, 2013 between the BPE and Interstate with several other agreements signed with them.
After the Privatization Programme, the distribution license was issued to EEDC over five South Eastern States, which area also included previously, and exclusively licensed Aba Ring-Fenced Area granted to APL, without carving out the existing Aba Electricity Distribution Company (APL) network. On that basis, EEDC became the licensee in respect of the Enugu Distribution Area while APL remained the exclusive licensee of the Aba Ring-Fenced Area, creating a conflict between the two licenses.