They installed an interim management team, citing N456.5 billion in accumulated market debt as of May 2026.

The order, dated August 10, 2026, marks the second collapse of a core investor arrangement at the utility since Nigeria's 2013 power sector privatisation. It comes less than two years after ASI Engineering Ltd took operational control, and it puts NERC's investor-led restructuring model, already tested once and found wanting, under fresh scrutiny.

NERC Chairman Dr. Musiliu Oseni and Commissioner for Legal, Licensing and Compliance Dafe Akpeneye signed the order under Section 75 of the Electricity Act. The Commission said the action responded to deteriorating finances, persistent market defaults and failure to meet operational and investment obligations. It did not soften the language. NERC called the situation a grave breach of market rules.

The numbers explain why. KAEDC owed N415.5 billion to Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc and N41 billion to the Nigerian Independent System Operator. Non-market liabilities added another N14.26 billion. Of the total, N118.6 billion accumulated in under two years, the entire span of ASI Engineering's control, which began in June 2024 after conditional regulatory approval that January.

The company's 2025 performance offers little cover. KAEDC settled only 41.93 per cent of its adjusted market invoices last year, NERC said, leaving a shortfall of N46.71 billion. Aggregate Technical, Commercial and Collection losses reached 71.88 per cent. Just 28.2 per cent of electricity received by the DisCo was billed to customers. Metering coverage sat between 33.26 and 35.54 per cent, despite prior interventions by NERC and the federal government.

Capital investment lagged furthest. KAEDC spent N2.48 billion on capex in 2025, against a required minimum of N24.51 billion. That is an execution rate near 10 per cent. NERC also said conditions tied to ASI's original takeover, specifically payment guarantees to NBET and NISO, were never fulfilled during its tenure.

A Second Failed Investor

ASI Engineering's exit effectively closes a chapter that began with the failure of North West Power Limited, which held a 60 per cent stake in KAEDC from the original 2013 privatisation. North West Power's ownership deteriorated amid financial and operational breaches. NERC started revoking its license in 2023. That process cleared the way for ASI Engineering to step in the following year.

Less than two years later, NERC is intervening again. The pattern is now the story. Two successive investors, one licence revocation, one board dissolution, and a debt figure that has only grown. NERC's order does not name a cause beyond the operational and financial data. But the repetition is on the record, in the Commission's own filing.

The interim leadership named in the order includes Dr. Abubakar Hashidu as Interim Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, and Dr. Abdullahi Garba as Chairman. Engr. Francis Agoha becomes Special Director. Mr. Ayodeji Gbeleyi represents the Bureau of Public Enterprises on the team. The mandate runs six months.

What happens next diverges from the last restructuring. Rather than moving straight to another investor, NERC has mandated the African Export-Import Bank to run what the Commission calls a transparent, market-driven process to find a new core investor within 12 months. Afreximbank's process is set to begin with transaction structuring and governance design, then move to investor engagement, bid evaluation and transfer agreements, pending regulatory sign-off.

That sequencing matters. The prior two transitions, North West Power to ASI Engineering, moved on a shorter runway with less structural redesign. This time NERC appears to be building the governance framework before it picks who runs the company, not after.

Alongside the investor search, NERC ordered a 90-day reconciliation of KAEDC's liabilities. The exercise will involve the interim management, NBET, NISO, BPE and other creditors, and is meant to fix an exact figure for what the company owes before any debt-resolution framework is built.

The interim team operates under tight constraints. NERC has barred it from taking on new borrowing, selling assets, entering related-party transactions or changing senior management without prior regulatory approval. Existing management clearances have been pulled and must be revalidated. The restrictions read as an attempt to freeze the company's financial position rather than let it move at all while the reconciliation proceeds.

Despite the scale of the debt, NERC did not order any suspension of service. The interim management has been directed to continue distributing electricity within the company's available technical capacity, maintain existing service standards and strengthen consumer protection during the transition. For KAEDC's customers, in other words, the immediate instruction is continuity, even as the corporate structure above them is dismantled and rebuilt.

What remains unresolved is the reconciliation itself. NERC has given the interim team, NBET, NISO and BPE 90 days from August 10 to establish the company's exact liabilities, a deadline that falls in early November 2026. Until that figure is fixed, the debt-resolution framework the Commission has promised cannot be built, and Afreximbank's 12-month search for KAEDC's third core investor cannot proceed on solid financial ground.