A total of nine companies had prequalified for the Closing the Financial Gap project to salvage the utility, which has been losing up to $1bn a year.

The scheme consists of two contracts:

• The winner of the first contract will be responsible for improving the management of tariff collection, the introduction of automatic metering and the installation of 1.25 million electricity meters across the country.

• The winner of the second will operate and manage the electricity distribution network.

The project was previously delayed by a month because of concerns that political instability in the country could discourage companies from bidding (MEED 22:4:08).