Nigeria’s federal government on Monday said it had facilitated the payment of salaries and unremitted 20 months pension contributions deducted from workers of the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC).
This was disclosed in a statement from the office of Minister of Power, Abubakar Aliyu.
The outstanding emoluments was part of the factors that triggered the takeover of the power distribution company by its creditors last month.
The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) and the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) at the time had stated that the lending bank, the United Bank for Africa (UBA), only exercised its rights over the shares of KANN consortium, part owners of AEDC.
AEDC a licenced utility, serves customers in Kogi, Nasarawa, Niger and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
There had been a dispute amongst competing factions of AEDC’s majority shareholder/core investor, KANN Utility Company Limited, which eventually spilled over to a dispute with the lender that provided the acquisition loan to KANN.
According to NERC and BPE, the matter later deteriorated over KANN ‘s inability to service its debt to the bank, inability to meet its obligations to the market under the terms and conditions of its licence and failure to meet its obligations to staff.
The situation culminated in the industrial action by members of the Nigerian Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE), eventually, resulting in a total service disruption on December 6, 2021 for over 14 hours in AEDC’s network area.
Electricity supply in AEDC’s network area was only restored after the intervention of the federal government through Aliyu, NERC and BPE, following an agreement with the union on the terms of the suspension of the industrial action. An interim team to manage the AEDC had since been appointed.
“The federal ministry of power announces the fulfilment of its promise to ensure the payment of all entitlements of the workers of Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) which caused the recent industrial action that shut down the company’s facilities and disrupted power across FCT, Kogi, Nasarawa and Niger states.
“The intervention of the ministry facilitated the payment of the entitlements of AEDC staff, as agreed in the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) and other stakeholders in December last year.
“The entitlements settled include unpaid allowances, salaries, union deductions and unremitted 20 months pensions contributions deducted from workers’ salaries,” Aliyu stated.
The minister reaffirmed the commitment of the federal ministry of power to work with all stakeholders to ensure steady electricity supply and stability in the electricity industry.
He added that the federal government will continue to ensure that all the electricity sector players and stakeholders work according to the rules and guidelines.
Aliyu explained that in December last year, the ministry took the initiative that ended the AEDC workers’ strike by engaging the organised labour.
“The strike action last year came at the same time as changes in shareholding in AEDC and the appointment of an interim management for AEDC by the shareholders and was endorsed by NERC and BPE,” he added.
Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja
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