* Hints at plans to end estimated billing regime
Minister of power, Adebayo Adelabu, has warned against asking residents of communities to contribute money to buy electricity transformers and other materials on their own.
Adelabu gave the warning during a meeting with the management of Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBDEC) during a facility tour in Oyo State.
He said the situation whereby communities are made to contribute money to acquire transformers, cables and other electrical equipment must stop/
According to the minister, the government is always committed to providing every need of the people, in order to improve their living standard.
He expressed disappointment over the continued complaints of power consumers on the metering system.
He promised to address the situation by canceling the estimated billings in the power sector.
Also, he disclosed that the ministry is open to collaborating with the private sector to better serve Nigerians in the area of power distribution.
Adelabu said that the purpose of the meeting was to seek more collaboration with relevant stakeholders to see how the power sector could be more efficient.
According to him, it also aims at addressing the numerous complaints of electricity consumers.
“IBEDC remains largest in terms of coverage among the distribution companies which brings a lot of responsibilities and consumers’ expectations on the company.’’
The minister said that the metering gap remains wide in Nigeria, noting that about 50 per cent of the customers within the coverage area are yet to be metered.
“Citizens are tired of estimated billing, because estimated billing always leads to cheating between consumers, staffs and company.
“Before the end of this year, we are looking at the possibility of ending estimated billing because we want transparency and objectivity in our billing system,’’ he said.
He added that President Bola Tinubu has just established a presidential metering initiative to harmonise all metering acquisition in the country.
“We have up to eight million meters gap in Nigeria and what the initiative seeks to achieve is to close this gap with three to five years.
“This means that an average of two millions meters is required on yearly basis and achieving the target is compulsory for citizens to enjoy stable power supply,’’ the minister said.
On tariff, the minister said that Nigerians should expect electricity tariff review in a way that would not add to the burden of the citizens, adding that adequate sensitisation and public enlightenment must be carried out before such review.
He said that the review would be progressive with minimal or no impact on low income earners and people in areas with short supply duration.
“Another condition is that we must improve electricity supply so as to encourage people to pay before we can talk about tariff adjustments.
“We must also ensure that the tariff review is better, compared with alternative energy sources, “he said.
Also speaking, the Managing Director, IBEDC, Kingsley Achife, who said the present electricity tariff is not cost reflective, said that the situation needs prompt attention to improve quality of service to the people.
Achife said that IBEDC had open a transformer repair workshop in Ibadan to ensure that transformers were being repaired and restore back to operations within short period of time
He said that the company would soon take delivery of 300 transformers to increase its service capabilities in its area of coverage.
He urged the ministry to harnessing huge investment opportunities along Ibadan-Lagos expressway axis due to presence of many organisations along the axis.
“Travelling along Ibadan to Lagos, the whole area is filled with investment opportunities. Unfortunately, we are not able to serve that place for several reasons, including wires, infrastructures, and other required assets,” he said.