.jpg) |
| NERC Boss. Sam Amadi |
The report of the committee set up by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to look into metering and electricity supply in Nigeria has accused chief executive officers of PHCN of "inefficiency and lack of accountability".
The committee, which was set up in December 2011 and headed by Bamidele Aturu, presented its report to the commission in Abuja on Wednesday.
While presenting the report, Aturu said: "the committee discovered that less than 50 percent of the registered customers in the Nigerian electricity sector are metered.
"And this has led to the prevalent practice of arbitrary charges based on unscientific estimation of electricity consumed by customers."
He revealed that the distribution companies responsible for distributing electricity to consumers, in order to meet up with their overhead costs in an environment of inefficiency and dwindling supply of electricity, have to use estimation to ensure they make more profits.
Aturu said the number of customers captured in the records of electricity suppliers was 5,172,979, representing 18.7 percent of the nation’s total households of 28,900,492, going by the 2006 National Bureau of Statistics report.
According to him, this record does not include those who use electricity illegally, who are not registered by distribution companies and are known as illegal consumers.
He explained that out of the number of customers registered, only 56 percent were metered.
Aturu added that out of the total number of customers metered, about 22 percent had faulty meters.
The distribution companies told the committee that they were being hampered by inadequate funding to make meters available to customers.
However, the committee observed in its inquiry that the distribution companies had meters in stock but failed to install them for customers.
Aturu said that the N2.9 billion provided for Multi Year Tariff Order 1(MYTO) was released to distribution companies to provide meters to customers, but that they did not adequately account for it.
He listed lack of autonomy, government interference, and absence of competent local meter manufacturers as critical factors which contributed to huge metering gap in the country.
Aturu further accused the distribution companies of sharp practices and inefficiencies in the metering system.
The committee recommended that distribution companies should be given operational and financial authority to engage in innovative strategies of financing aimed at bridging the metering gap.
They also recommended that criminal cases such as illegal distribution should be investigated, and those found guilty should be punished.
Earlier, Dr. Sam Amadi, the Chairman of NERC, expressed satisfaction with the committee’s report, saying the recommendations would be implemented to the letter.
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everydayAdvertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com