The Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) has confirmed the sale of the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC), one of the five power distribution companies previously under its management.
Gbenga Alake, managing director and chief executive officer of AMCON, made the disclosure during a media parley with senior media executives on Thursday, July 3.
Alake revealed that the company was sold for N100 billion and said AMCON will soon hand over IBEDC to the preferred bidder.
He explained that the initial sale offer was rejected for being too low, prompting a re-submission that resulted in nearly double the previous valuation.
“Today, I announce to you that Ibadan DisCo has been sold. When we came in, it had already been sold. It was sold for how much?” Alake said. “We got in and said no, it cannot be. We said they should go and submit a new offer that we were not going to sell for that. At the end of the day, we got almost double of what Ibadan DisCo was going to be sold for.”
The sale has, however, sparked legal disputes. Alake acknowledged that various interests have since gone to court over the transaction, but insisted that AMCON is confident it followed due process.
“We have sold it… and whatever is still happening in court, we will face it,” he stated.
The federal government had earlier announced plans to divest from five distribution companies under the management of banks and AMCON. Alongside IBEDC, the other firms are Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC), Benin Electricity Distribution Company, Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company, and Kano Electricity Distribution Company.
In May, the African Initiative Against Abuse of Public Trust, a civil society organisation, filed a suit at the Federal High Court in Abuja against AMCON, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), and IBEDC. The suit, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/866/2025, alleges that the proposed sale of a 60 percent stake in IBEDC for $62 million was “secretive and illegal,” and described the transaction as “corruptly undervalued.”
According to the group, the sale could result in a $107 million loss to the Nigerian government compared to the $169 million valuation placed on the same stake during the 2013 privatisation exercise.
