Abubakar Aliyu, the minister of Power, has disclosed that nine electricity distribution companies out of the eleven are almost bankrupt nine years after the sector’s privatisation.

According to the Minister, only Eko Electricity Distribution Company, Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company, and Enugu Electricity Distribution Companies are making profits, while others are losing.

Aliyu spoke on Tuesday, December 13, 2022, in Abuja at the 11th edition of the ‘PMB Administration Scorecard Series (2015-2023)’ organised by the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture.

He revealed that the situation had forced the federal government to mandate banks to find serious investors interested in buying its 60 percent equity in the Abuja, Kano, Kaduna, Benin, Ibadan, and Port Harcourt DisCos.

House Of Reps To Probe DISCOs Over Illegal Billing

To check the trend of high electricity tariffs by electricity distribution companies, the House of Representatives has mandated its committee on power to investigate the allegations of over-billing by Nigerians.

The committee is to investigate the allegations of overbilling, illegal tariff increase, and non-compliance to the directives of the Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC.

The decision to investigate the DISCOs followed the adoption of a motion moved by Bello Shamsudeen from Kano.

Shamsudeen said the NERC ordered that refunds be made to overbilled customers of Electricity Distribution Companies through energy credit of excess charges to the affected individuals and businesses.

He stated that some DISCOs are not complying with the directives of NERC.

Shamsudeen said some DISCOs are violating regulation 9(7) of NERC meter reading, billing, cash collection, and credit management for electricity suppliers regulation 2007

The committee was mandated by the House to revert to the House within three weeks.

Taraba Gov’t House Cut Off From Electricity Over Unpaid Bills

The Yola Electricity Distribution Company, YEDC, has disconnected the electricity supply to the Taraba State Government House.

Apart from the government house that was observed to have been disconnected, ministries, departments, and agencies were not spared.

The alleged inability of the state government to offset its electricity bills of over N500 million was said to have necessitated the distribution company’s action.

Some officials of the company, who confided in Daily Post, said the action became necessary because of the state government’s alleged lukewarm attitude towards settling its electricity bills.

The staff who craved anonymity said, “the truth is that we have been pushed to the wall by the state government. If we continue like this, our dreams of ensuring stable power will turn out to be a mirage.”

Government activities at the state secretariat, at the time of filing this report, were observed to have been grounded as most of their jobs that have to do with typing, and photocopying among others, are now carried out in business centers.

Some top officials of some of the ministries, departments, and agencies visited by our state correspondent, admitted that they were denied power due to government’s inability to offset the power bill.

Another source from one of the ministries who also barred his mind to Daily Post said, “could you believe that monthly subvention meant for the maintenance of our ministries, agencies, and departments have long been stopped?”

Stressing that “our ministries, departments, and agencies have all collapsed under the present state government”, he urged media practitioners to help expose the predicaments of state government establishments.

While some offices have resorted to using generators, others that cannot afford it were left without a power supply.

Source: Daily Post