*Give conditions for stability in electricity supply

By Chineme Okafor in Abuja

Electricity distribution companies in Nigeria’s power sector Sunday declared that they have been freed from the responsibility of providing meters to power consumers under their networks, adding that the newly initiated Meter Assets Provider (MAP) programme of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) is now to be saddled with that task.

The Discos also gave three conditions upon which the country’s electricity supply could be stable, calling on President Muhammadu Buhari to sit up and address the challenges of the sector without politics.

Speaking at a press briefing in Abuja, the Executive Director for Research and Advocacy of the Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED), 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.

ANED is the trade association of the Discos, while MAP was initiated by NERC to improve meter deployment rate in the country’s electricity sector using approved third-party operators.

The commission had as at early March 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.

“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,” said Oduntan.

“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,” he said.

According to him, the Discos “support anything or programme that will make it possible for Nigerians to have meters,” adding: “We are in support of it but please put on our front doors what belong to us and to others what belongs to them.”

“We are partners and want people to understand now because MAP providers are now in charge of meters that is the facts 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 networks, the better for us because people will for once pay for what they consume. Studies have shown that those who waste electricity are the one who are on estimated bills,” he added.

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 failing 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, would 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.

Claiming that NERC has failed to undertake a review of its 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.

He however could not give more details on this, but stated: “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.”

Source: https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2019/03/24/were-no-longer-responsible-for-electricity-meters-discos-tell-consumers/amp/

I love this

“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.

touchè touchè. Oh well this situation going to get messy if they really follow through on threat. Hopefully the MAP supply enough meters quick enough if NASS passes law.

Front page: Lalasticlala

Oooops:
I love this

what is there to love about this show of shame , you are going to be extorted criminally and you say you love it

They should provide it already na..сгіміиаLs

They said there is prepaid meter factory in Akwa Ibom. Are the meters being exported or what?

When is the distribution starting

Discos want to test their luck but the repercussions will hit them hard. Thank God license renewal is close.

so who

Ohhh boy! Lies! They did 88 percent of house metering.

8GB Atm card flash drive for #1000 only. Check link below.

Yeye dey smell

hope this decision won't make some persons increase the price of the meter or selling at a rate

Hmmm

Kaduna electric are thieves, some of their staffs openly admitted that, the company don't want to give prepaid meters because it is not generating enough money, unlike what they generate from people using direct livht without meters.

It is very pathetic, very sad our indegenous companies are milking us dry.

hope this decision won't make some persons increase the price of the meter or selling at a rate.We help pay your 1688 suppliers.check 4 more details

What's the implication?

Nigerians are generally theives
My landlord with the fact that he has prepaid o, still connected light direct. With Two Splits units this mofo go use all of them till daybreak
What pains me the most about this is that the idiot dey collect pumping water money from me again dey lie say na ontop him meter dey water dey. Meter wey d units no change for days
Any time nepa officials come baba no go gree make dem enter him house o.
Like say make i snitch am sef

Simply put, we no get stable light any time soon!

Meter we no see
Light we no see
Bill we see.
Abeg, comot for road. All these disagreement and disengagement and threat is bore solely by the common man.
Gerarahere!!

As an ex consultant with enugu disco i cant tell u the system has no hope. Pple owing discos, discos owing CBN, NBET owing discos. The whole cycle na doom o. People contributed for meters before fashola scrapped it . Yet the discos could not give every one who paid. Fukery

Good riddance to bad rubbish
It's the same kettle of fish
This is not the solution. The solution is to remove power from the exclusive list to the residual/ concurrent list
Decentralize power and allow local communities or govt. to generate, transmit and distribute power only to pay taxes to the FG.

Blue3k:


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.

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 failing the proposed law.

If govt allow estimated billing to continue, it will be a disservice to the Nigerian people. Govt should criminalise it like yesterday. Nigerians are made to pay through the nose for service not enjoyed. Discos make more money from estimated billings than actual billings.

These Discos are full of criminal elements, Nigerian way of doing business. You want to charge more for epileptic service? Charge Nigerians more for almost non-existent service?

Make the service available, no one will complain of your cost-reflective pricing proposal.

It's obvious the govt doesn't have laid down plans, they are just making decisions as they go along

SarkinYarki:


what is there to love about this show of shame , you are going to be extorted criminally and you say you love it

may be he is one of the beneficiary of the of the show of shame

If the government demands 20k from each building in Nigeria they wil be done with collect in 2 months but if its to provide basic amenities it will take them 100 years.

What is this Sunday guy saying.
88% meter supply is a big LIE
So, you want government to start subsidising your estimated fat bills and recreate another conduit pipe of meagre resources for this country.
Who force you to buy PHCN?
You better review your fraudulent, greedy and extortive business model.
It is never late for you to withdraw.

Awon weyrey

For improvement in power the tariff rates has to go up. Aside that the each house connected to the network must be metered be it prepaid or postpaid. Both prepaid and postpaid are beneficial to the consumers if they utilize it well

Estimated billing continues.