Electricity distribution companies in Nigeria’s power sector yesterday asked President Muhammadu Buhari to sit up and comprehensively address the challenges in the power sector without recourse to politics.
They
also declared that they have been freed from the responsibility of
providing meters to power consumers under their networks, explaining
that the newly initiated Meter Assets Provider (MAP) programme of the
Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) is now to be saddled
with that task.
Speaking at a press briefing in Abuja, the
Executive Director for Research and Advocacy of the Association of
Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED), an umbrella body of the
Discos, Mr. Sunday Oduntan, said that NERC’s MAP had assumed the
responsibility of providing meters to Nigerians, in which case, the
Discos no longer hold that primary responsibility.
MAP was initiated
by NERC to improve meter deployment rate in the country’s electricity
sector using approved third-party operators.
The commission had approved 121 firms to participate in the scheme.
But
speaking on the development, Oduntan explained that the Discos have
taken a backseat in the task, and would only support the MAP operators
to do their jobs.
He said: “The failures of the legacy years caught
up with us when we came on board and in trying to roll out meters, we
need to do a lot more.
“We have done quite a lot in our performance
agreements. There are a number of meters that we were required to
provide within five years, and within the five-year period, we did 88
per cent of what we were required to do.
“But you need to understand that what we were required to do was far low compared to the nation’s metering requirement.
“Those
who have meters will tell you they are happy, and those who don’t have
meters have a right to be aggrieved. So, metering now has been taken off
the Discos’ primary responsibilities.”
He added: “In summary,
the MAP providers are essentially now in charge of metering and not the
Discos. We are participants and have roles to play.
“We are playing
along and doing what we are expected to do and asked to do as Discos,
but we are not the one that will now provide meters to Nigerians going
forward and people should understand that.”
According to him, the
Discos support anything or programme that will make it possible for
Nigerians to have meters, adding: “We are partners and want people to
understand now because MAP providers are now in charge of meters and
that is the fact that Nigerians should understand and I don’t want any
politician to start playing politics that it is not, it is MAP and we
support MAP.
“The more meters we have in our network the better
for us because people will for once pay for what they consume. Studies
have shown that those who waste electricity are the ones who are on
estimated bills.”
He said the Discos were equally worried about the
move to criminalise estimated billing methodology of the NERC, adding
that if that happens, they will most likely deny supply to consumers
without meters to avoid going to prison for flouting the proposed law.
“The
moment you make estimated billing a criminal offence for me as a Disco,
you are telling me that if I cannot give you a meter, I should not give
you light. So, I cannot go to prison. Let common sense prevail if you
are saying it is a criminal offence,” he said.
On the conditions
required for electricity supply to become stable in the country, Oduntan
said it was necessary for the government to allow for cost-reflective
tariff in the sector, provide financial subsidies for people who may not
be able to pay the right tariff, and create regulatory assets scheme
for the Discos.
This, he stated, is to make the Discos to be able to
source finance from banks to fund their operations in the event that the
government is cautious of a public backlash over cost-reflective
tariff.
He claimed that the NERC has failed to undertake a review of
their tariff since 2016 to allow for a tariff that is cost-efficient.
Oduntan said that the financial shortfall from this was now in excess of N1.4 trillion.
“There
has never been a single minor tariff review since 2016. We have been
expecting reviews since 2016, and anything short of that means that
sector will not work,” he added.
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