Wealthy Nigerian politician Abdulaziz Yari personally settles Geregu Power's defaulted bond

Abdulaziz Yari, the chairman of Geregu Power Plc and a Nigerian senator, has personally provided the funds to clear the company's defaulted bond, stepping in with his own money to settle an obligation the utility had failed to meet.

The debt stemmed from Geregu Power's N40.09 billion ($29 million) Series 1 senior unsecured bond, issued in July 2022, more than three years before Yari's group took control of the company in December. Geregu had recently missed a scheduled coupon and principal repayment, tipping the bond into default.

Yari, a former governor of Zamfara State, said through his media office that he acted to protect the company, reassure bondholders and support the government's push to strengthen the power sector. He tied the decision to President Bola Tinubu's Renewed Hope Agenda and praised the administration's backing for electricity generation.

"As a stakeholder and a senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, I deem it incumbent on me to do everything humanly possible for the Renewed Hope Agenda to be successful," he said.

Yari stressed that stepping in did not settle the wider question of who should ultimately bear the cost. The bond and the arrangements around it predated the current leadership, he said, and the company would keep pressing the former management and board for reimbursement.

"We continue to engage the former management and board of Geregu Power Plc for reimbursement. I have decided to do this in order to save the shares of the company," he said.

He assured bondholders, trustees, shareholders, the board, management and the public of his continued support for Geregu, saying the immediate priority was to preserve the company's stability and protect its ability to generate power. Allowing inherited debts to disrupt operations, he argued, would damage a business that plays a meaningful role in national electricity supply.

Yari's group, MA'AM Energy, took control of Geregu Power in a roughly $750 million deal late last year, a move that made the politician one of the more prominent private owners in Nigeria's power industry. The bond default, flagged by the market's exchange over a missed coupon and principal payment, was an early test of that ownership.

The personal settlement removes the immediate threat to the company's standing with creditors, though the dispute over who bears the loss between the current owners and Geregu's former stewards remains unresolved.