Ikeja Electric, Nigeria’s largest electricity distribution company by customer base, said Friday it has appointed Ogochukwu Onyelucheya as acting chief executive officer, effective July 1, replacing Folake Soetan, who led the utility through six years of sweeping operational change and is stepping into a wider strategic role within parent company Sahara Group.
The transition comes at a sensitive moment for Nigeria’s power sector, where distribution companies, known locally as DisCos, have long struggled with aging infrastructure, high collection losses, and a regulatory environment that critics say has kept tariffs too low to attract meaningful private investment.
Against that backdrop, the outgoing CEO’s tenure was seen by analysts and company insiders alike as a stabilising force.
Soetan took over in 2020, a period when confidence in the privatised electricity distribution industry was fragile at best.
During her time at Ikeja Electric, she oversaw improvements in operational performance, strengthened the company’s relationships with regulators and investors, and pushed the utility toward a more customer-focused culture, no small feat in a market where unplanned outages and estimated billing remain persistent sources of consumer frustration.
