This post has been on my mind for quite a while and i think this is an issue every Nigerian irrespective of tribe or political leaning should discuss

One thing i need to establish here is that the common man on the street does not know anything about 5,000 megawatt or 6,000 megawatt generation
What the common man wants to know is "Is there light?" sadly since 1984 till date Nigeria has not seen a full month of 24hrs uninterrupted power supply (correct me if i am wrong)

The previous govt privatized the Distribution companies, but everyone can agree that they dropped the ball on that one; for the companies were sold to their cronies and these people refused to invest in the power sector....they were saddled with an industry as corrupt as Babylon with a myriad of problems....and the new investors did not bring in anything new, they were also swallowed by the system; a system that swallowed 16 billion USD and still brought no results

Now we have the "Rocket Science" man in charge and one can ask "Why hasnt Fashola introduced more players into the distribution companies?"
it is obvious that the DISCOS are overwhelmed see links buttressing my point
http://punchng.com/eight-power-firms-reject-1337mwh-despite-poor-supply/
https://www.nairaland.com/3592788/discos-rejecting-load-kanji-md

the topics above were disheartening, upon the poor power supplies the DISCOS are rejecting megawatts.
Why hasnt the minister of power taken a look into distribution companies, i can agree that power generation is out of anyone's hand due to gas and hydro issues....but haba what of distribution na? aby do Niger delta militants cut nepa wires and steal poles?
One of the key importance of privatization is to foster competition, and in private sector the customer is King; but in Nigeria, Power seems to be tax!!, Power is like a civic obligation; DISCOS do not care how u feel or anything about customer satisfaction, they are so rude and uncultured in their attitude forgetting that it is our money that keeps them in a job.
it seems to be by Force to pay for light and DISCOS don't give a damn about customer satisfaction....The importance of competition cannot be overemphasized, lets take a case study of petroleum downstream sector.
We know now that due to forex issues only the NNPC and a few big shots are able to import PMS into the country, most companies just buy from NNPC and retail to their various consumers and since competition is active there, if you carry your Gerry can to buy fuel the attendants will be jostling and hustling for your attention.
I went today to buy fuel and the attendant called me, getting there he wanted to sell to a car i told him that if he was not ready for me why did he call me and immediately he sold to me, apologizing profusely; my mind flashed back to during the scarcity time when a few filling stations monopolized fuel distribution. Fuel attendants were kings and the extorted mercilessly from Nigerians, soldiers were withdrawn from the barracks to flog, maim and harass Nigerians in fuel queues.... I said to myself "Thank God for competition"

But in power the story is a sad one...My auditing office we are barely on seat, we are always up and about saving SME's from being closed by FIRS and helping people save their business for we not only audit we also give a lot of value; because if our clients grow vis a vis we also grow. Due to this when NEPA people come no one is around to show them our bill and "Bam" our wire is on the ground....Of course we have an account officer which we parley with, but when u talk to her it seems you are talking to a god...all she does is bark instructions to you and they never take you serious. Prepaid meter is like a dream even though we paid up all our outstanding in hopes we would be connected but 6 months down the line we are still on estimated bills....at home is worse; Nepa bring light during "Happy Hour" that is 12:30 am to 4:30 am. This is the light u need to charge phones and laptops, Pump water, get some additional work done, Iron clothes etc....and after that u have to wake up early to beat traffic.
So you see a man dozing on duty and u think Madam did not let him rest, no be so oh!! na NEPA cause am

Now to the solution i am offering.
I want to call on the minister to sell License to small and Medium DISCOS. The SM-DISCOS can supply to Local govts, Estates, even streets. Let the consumer have a Choice....Even God (In whatever name u call him, Allah, Oluwa, Chineke, Ubangiji, Abasi, etc) gave man a choice, how come DISCOS are supreme and unchallenged?.
These SM-DISCOS will also create a lot of jobs and these jobs will reach the grass-root
The SM-DISCOS will pamper the customer, drive for revenue and distribute power effectively and efficiently a win win for everyone
even some big men area can float their own DISCOS and damn EKO DISCO
if there were options NEPA officials wont just behave like they are angels on earth, whenever there is a blackout they will explain and apologize, if a transformer blows up they will be quickly replaced, if one disco is not performing people can port easily to another DISCO, the issue of DISCOS rejecting power will be a thing of the past cus if you reject power another DISCO go sharparly distribute am.
I know it might not give us the 24hr power we need, but every human being likes to be recognized and respected...if you go to LIRS to pay your tax, their staff are so pretty and nice, so courteous that you wont be feeling any pains remitting your tax to Lagos state govt...even if you live in an area that has been abandoned; you will leave LIRS happy cus they make u feel like a King. This should be reproduced in our DISCOS ( sheby they said it is now under private hands)....when you go to pay your nepa bill, the saucy lady will tel you that their is no light so she cant process your payment, na u go dey beg make dem collect your money!!!

i call on all Nairalanders to put pressure on the minister, we are Nigerians and not slaves; even if they cant give us steady power, at least let their service be palatable...a simple sms telling you why you did not see light yesterday will go a long way on calming your nerves. Here we don't get the power and they don't bother to give an explanation, and they come with huge bills and force you to pay.
The minister should push that every-house should get prepaid meters and make the distibution more consumer friendly after all it is our money
cc Lalasticlala Modath Mind44 help me put it in the right place

It peeved me to see that the government is mute on this issue. Like the issue of breaking down DISCO into smaller competiting units by giving out license does not exist for them to even begin to take notice.

K

Bro, how do you mean that new DISCOS should be introduced because it seems it's either you or i that is confused about how this power privatisation works but I am willing to know better.

I will take Lagos for instance. The two DISCOS I know of there Eko distribution company and Ikeja distribution company has an area that has been sold to them to serve.

Therefore, you cant introduce or bring or give a license to another disco to serve an area that has already been given to either of the discos, else they'll go to court to stop it.

Now how should Fash go about giving new licenses to investors to serve those areas already sold to EDC so that according to you, there'll be healthy competition?

Thanks.

There is a NERC regulation in the works that allows generation and distribution in off-grid mode, Once there is a power purchase agreement PPA, between willing seller and buyer, and the tariff agreed between both parties you are good to go.
However i think the off-grid power capacity is still limited to 1 MW.

Ajibel:
Bro, how do you mean that new DISCOS should be introduced because it seems it's either you or i that is confused about how this power privatisation works but I am willing to know better.

I will take Lagos for instance. The two DISCOS I know of there Eko distribution company and Ikeja distribution company has an area that has been sold to them to serve.

Therefore, you cant introduce or bring or give a license to another disco to serve an area that has already been given to either of the discos, else they'll go to court to stop it.

Now how should Fash go about giving new licenses to investors to serve those areas already sold to EDC so that according to you, there'll be healthy competition?

Thanks.

Of course they shared lagos to their cronies, the same way they were sold before i am sure more licensees can be sold tooo..There is nothing the govt cannot achieve if it wishes to
Are you now saying that Nigerians have been sold to these companies and we must patronize them, where is the free market? believe me they will loose woefully in court if the govt decides to further un-bundle power distribution.
i only proffered a solution and i listed the advantages, even when Nepa was sold people went to court but it did not stop the govt f the day

If you are comfortable with the way things are then i am beginning to suspect you

FakoMaybach1:

Of course they shared lagos to their cronies, the same way they were sold before i am sure more licensees can be sold tooo..There is nothing the govt cannot achieve if it wishes to
Are you now saying that Nigerians have been sold to these companies and we must patronize them, where is the free market? believe me they will loose woefully in court if the govt decides to further un-bundle power distribution.
i only proffered a solution and i listed the advantages, even when Nepa was sold people went to court but it did not stop the govt f the day

If you are comfortable with the way things are then i am beginning to suspect you

Lol. There is nothing the government cannot do, you say?

If this same government flouts court ruling, you'll be the first to say the government doesn't respect the rule of law!

The government has a contract to honour and revoking that contract would eventually hurt we the masses that the government wants to protect.

Is it not we same masses that was against subsidy removal which the governments intention was to protect us?

Are you aware that these discos have invested a lot, have employed several families and also are in debts. You think the government can just come in and make drastic changes without the discos putting up a fight.

Do you also know it can send a wrong signal to willing investors that due to political instability in the nation, contracts can easily be revoked by another government?

This is what Fash is trying to avoid while at the same time making efforts to increase power capacity.

The best option here is to go the way @Ovamboland suggested. That's something similar to what the LASG did under Fashola and Ambode wants to improve on.

And to your last statement, that was totally uncalled for. Cant you respect or entertain diverse opinions? We would all learn better that way.

Thanks sir.

We pravitised the wrong way. The way the EDCs were privatised gave no room for competition as each of them didn't share customers. What we need is privatization of GENCOs to drive generation rate down via competition and then sell at equal price.

i will only agree if the deregulation will be the type that OBJ brought to the Telecom sector that brought significant change
Nigeria need to build hydros, it is more sustainable than gas turbines, atleast we hv Niger and Benue river with much hydroelectric potentials.

I cannot agree more

Ajibel:


Lol. There is nothing the government cannot do, you say?

If this same government flouts court ruling, you'll be the first to say the government doesn't respect the rule of law!

The government has a contract to honour and revoking that contract would eventually hurt we the masses that the government wants to protect.

Is it not we same masses that was against subsidy removal which the governments intention was to protect us?

Are you aware that these discos have invested a lot, have employed several families and also are in debts. You think the government can just come in and make drastic changes without the discos putting up a fight.

Do you also know it can send a wrong signal to willing investors that due to political instability in the nation, contracts can easily be revoked by another government?

This is what Fash is trying to avoid while at the same time making efforts to increase power capacity.

The best option here is to go the way @Ovamboland suggested. That's something similar to what the LASG did under Fashola and Ambode wants to improve on.

And to your last statement, that was totally uncalled for. Cant you respect or entertain diverse opinions? We would all learn better that way.

Thanks sir.

sorry sir, my passion overtook me...believe me when i tell you Power holds the answer to 90% of our problems in this country
My intention here is for us as Nigerians to brainstorm and bring up suggestions to better the industry.
AS A PEOPLE IT IS HIGH TIME WE STOPPED COMPLAINING AND STARTED TAKING CORRECTIVE ACTIONS
thank you, your contribution is priceless