Nigeria’s National Council on Privatisation (NCP) has approved Mainstream Energy Solutions Limited (MESL) as the preferred bidder for the concession of the Zungeru Hydroelectric Power plant (ZHPP) for a fee of US$70million per year for 30 years.
The Council, chaired by the Vice President, Prof Yemi Osibanjo (SAN), announced the approval of Mainstream Energy Solutions at its 2nd meeting for the year 2023, held on Tuesday, February 21, 2023, at the Presidential Villa, Aso Rock in Abuja.
The Council directed the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) to commence the negotiations and execution of the concession agreement with the preferred bidder.
MESL (the preferred bidder) scored 1,142 marks (94.3%) of the total 1,200 marks, thus, surpassing the minimum benchmark score of 75 per cent of 1,200 marks, having offered the highest concession fee of US$70million to beat Africa Plus Partners Nigeria Limited Consortium (APPNLC) which scored 742 points.
It would be recalled that the NCP, at its 7th meeting for the year 2020, held on December 21, 2020, approved the concession of the ZHPP, consequent which the Federal Ministry of Power (FMOP) donated an irrevocable Power of Attorney to the BPE on June 30, 2021, for the implementations of the NCP’s decision.
Based on this, the BPE published the Requests for Qualifications (RfQ) for the concession of the power plant in three national newspapers on October 27, 2022, when at the close of the deadline, 11 firms submitted bids.
Three of them, namely Africa Plus Partners Nigeria Limited Consortium (APPNLC), Mainstream Energy Solutions Limited (MESL and North-South Power Consortium (NSP) were prequalified.
In another development, the NCP has approved a scheme of External Restructuring proposed by KEPCO Energy Resources Nigeria Limited (KERNL), the core investor in the Egbin Power Plant.
The approval is to enable the entity to boost its capacity to raise the required capital to double the existing capacity of the plant to 2640MW.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com