By Omowumi Omotosho
The Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) has finalized the sale of the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC), one of Nigeria’s major power firms, for a total of N100 billion.
Gbenga Alake, AMCON’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, made the disclosure during a strategic session with media stakeholders held on Thursday.
This transaction follows an earlier announcement by the federal government in April 2024, stating plans to divest from five electricity distribution companies currently under the control of banks and AMCON.
IBEDC is among the listed DisCos slated for sale, alongside Abuja, Benin, Kaduna, and Kano Electricity Distribution Companies.
Alake noted that the sale process had reached its final phase and that the corporation would soon complete the formal handover to the new owner.
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“Today, I announce to you that Ibadan DisCo has been sold. When we came in, it has already been sold. It was sold for how much?” the AMCON boss 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 DisCos was going to be sold for.”
Alake said the sale has triggered legal battles, with “so many interests now fighting and writing”.
He said while the matter is in court, the AMCON is very positive that the right thing was done.
“We have sold it and whatever is still happening in court, we will face it,” he said.
On May 15, a legal suit was initiated by the African Initiative Against Abuse of Public Trust, a civil society organisation, targeting several federal entities over a controversial transaction. The group filed a case at the Federal High Court in Abuja, accusing AMCON, NERC, the Bureau of Public Enterprises, and the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company of attempting to sell a 60 percent ownership stake in IBEDC for $62 million.
The lawsuit, filed under suit number FHC/ABJ/CS/866/2025, characterizes the proposed deal as unlawful and carried out without due process. The organisation argues that the price is unreasonably low, claiming it was deliberately undervalued in a way that suggests corruption. According to the group, this sale would result in a financial shortfall of $107 million, given that the same stake was acquired for $169 million during the 2013 privatisation process.
