‘NELMCO liabilities hit N544bn in 2017’

The Chief Executive Officer of the Nigeria Electricity Liability Management Company (NELMCO), Adebayo Fagbemi, has said the company’s total inherited liabilities from the privatization of the Nigeria electricity industry stood at N544 billion as at December 2017.

He listed the liabilities as: engineering, successor companies, legacy debts, creditors, power producers and Power Purchase Agreement (IPP’s PPA) liabilities and contingent liabilities.

Fagbemi made the disclosure recently in Abuja while playing host to members of the Power Sector Communication Team (PSCT).

He said the company has been able to offset all its liabilities except the 16 months which had to be paid by Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE).

NELMCO, according to him, was established in 2006 to assume and manage the non-core assets, all liabilities and other obligations that would not be taken over by the successor companies, so that the said companies are not encumbered by liabilities at take-off.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola, has reemphasized the view that government’s privatization of the power sector was a step in the right direction. He said the Electricity Power Sector Reform Act (EPSRA) of 2005, which empowered the process also recognized certain categories of persons who are eligible to buy power directly from generation companies. the