The federal government will officially handover Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) generation and distribution companies to core investors in the second quarter of 2013.

A top official of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos yesterday on condition of anonymity.

The official attributed the slow pace of the bidding process of some of the power stations in the country to the cumbersome privatisation process.

He said the distribution company in Kaduna and the generation company in Afam in Rivers States were exempted from the exercise because no preferred bidder had emerged for the firms.

He said an agreement had been executed by the government and labour that guaranteed the cooperation of workers in the handover process.

The source said government is working to raise the finance to pay staff entitlements, adding that BPE is collaborating with the Ministry of Lands and Housing to resolve land and property titles.

"I don't think we can handover PHCN to successor companies now due to the ongoing bidding process of some of the power generation and distribution companies.

"But I'm sure that by second quarter of this year, government will officially hand over PHCN to the core investors," he said.