The Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) will, on Friday, open financial bids for the 10 plants constructed under the National Integrated Power Project (NIPP).
The Head, Public Communications, BPE, Mr. Chigbo Anichebe, disclosed this in a statement made available to our correspondent in Abuja on Monday.
The National Council on Privatisation and the Governing Board of the Niger Delta Power Holding Company had at their third joint meeting last Friday approved the opening of the financial bids submitted by 42 prequalified bidders.
The joint meeting chaired by Vice President Namadi Sambo directed that the bids be opened on Friday in keeping with the timeline for the transaction, Anichebe said.
The 42 bidders that had been prequalified met the criteria set in the Requests for Proposal and passed the due diligence verification conducted on technically qualified bidders, he added.
The 10 plants are jointly owned by the three tiers of government, with the Federal Government contributing 47 per cent equity stake and the state and local governments making up the remaining 53 per cent equity.
For the sale of the power plants, a Joint Technical Transaction Committee chaired by Benue State Governor, Mr. Gabriel Suswan, had been set up.
The JTTC is made up of the technical committees of the NCP and the NDPHC.
Anichebe quoted Sambo as saying that the privatisation of the NIPP plants was the first time the private sector, National Assembly and the three tiers of government were joining forces to ensure an all-inclusive transaction process.
Sambo further said that if Nigeria was going to be among the 20 largest economies in the world by the year 2020, the right steps must be taken.
He gave an assurance that the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan was committed to ensuring that those right steps were taken going forward.
The BPE had on November 8, 2013 received 66 proposals from prospective investors interested in the 10 NIPP plants.
An inter-agency evaluation team, including various security agencies, met from November 12 to 22, 2013 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 approved that 42 out of the 66 interested investors be prequalified to continue to the financial bid opening stage. – Punch.
