FG Liability In Defunct PHCN Now N823bn, Says NELMCO

The Nigeria Electricity Liability Management Company on Thursday said it had helped the Federal Government to save N91bn out of a total liability of N914bn of the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria.

This leaves the government with a total liability of N823bn.

NELMCO’s Managing Director, Adebayo Fagbemi, disclosed this in Abuja on the sidelines of the presentation of Self-Assessment Tool reports and plaque to his agency by the Bureau of Public Service Reforms.

The BPSR said it was carrying out self-assessment programmes in about 50 ministries, departments and agencies of the Federal Government and had so far assessed 15 MDAs this year.

Fagbemi said the N91bn was saved after the power sector liability management firm deployed a Triangular Verification Model to verify the inherited stranded debts of the defunct PHCN, which amounted to about N914bn.

He said the model enabled NELMCO to conduct due diligence on the inherited debts.

He noted that arising from the due diligence and review of values, negotiations, solicitation for discounts and others, the special purpose agency was able to manage the liabilities of government in the power sector.

Fagbemi said, “The agency is a special purpose vehicle and we tried to manage these debts on behalf of the Federal Government and based on the model we developed, we were able to save a total of N89bn.

“And through the discount solicitation window, we saved another N1.8bn. So when you add that up we are talking of about N91bn that we saved for the Federal Government.”

On why the BPSR conducted a self-assessment exercise at NELCMO, the bureau’s Director-General, Ibrahim Arabi, said the bureau noticed a lot of issues and problems that the power company needed to address.