No Room For Laziness, KEDC Interim Management Team Tells Workers After Company’s Take Over

The newly announced Board of Directors of Kaduna Electric has held its first inaugural meeting, with a warning to the workers that laziness would not be tolerated.

The meeting which held at the Corporate Headquarters of the company in Kaduna was chaired by the new Board Chairman, Alhaji Abbas Jega.

Other Board members at the meeting were Alhaji Ameenu Abubakar and Mr. Ignatius O. Ayewoh of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE).

Alhaji Umar Abdullahi, an Independent Director, also attended virtually. A Member, Marlene Ngoyi, was unable to attend.

The inaugural meeting also had the Management Team in attendance led by Engr. Aliyu Abbas who stood in for the Managing Director, Engr. Yusuf Usman Yahaya who was said to be absent.

The Chairman said the Board’s mandate is to chart a new course that will lead the company back on the path to sustainable growth.

While welcoming the new Board, the representative of the Managing Director assured the Chairman and other Board members of the necessary cooperation from the Management and staff in moving the company forward.

He urged Management and staff to tighten their belts and re-dedicate themselves to work to revive the fortune of the company.

He assured that no whole sale changes will be made as jobs of all staff is secure except those who are unwilling to remain committed to their duties.

THE WHISTLER had reported that the Bureau of Public Enterprises declared that Benin, Kaduna and Kano electricity distribution companies are the worst-performing Discos among the 11 power distributors in Nigeria.

The BPE stated as a result of their worst performance, the government through the Bureau of Public Enterprises and the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission had resolved to sell the majority interest in the three Discos to competent investors.

The Director-General, BPE, Alex Okoh, disclosed this in a statement he personally signed while reacting to the resistance by some Discos on the move by Fidelity Bank and the government to take over and restructure poor-performing Discos.

He said the government has decided to appoint interim Management to pilot the affairs of the companies pending when competent investors would be sought to inject fresh capital into the Discos.

For Kano Disco, the interim Managing Director was named as Ahmad Dangana; Benin Disco, Henry Ajagbawa; and Kaduna Disco, Yusuf Yahaya.

Okoh said, “It is envisaged that the majority interest in these Discos would be sold to competent private sector investors with the requisite technical and financial capacity to re-capitalise and manage these entities efficiently.

“As an interim measure, NERC and BPE met on an emergency basis and activated the business continuity process and appointed interim Managing Directors in the affected Discos.

“It must be reiterated that some of the publications from the core investors of these Discos have been quite disingenuous. Beyond the financial issues I have just discussed, the Discos affected happen to be the worst-performing ones,” the BPE boss stated.