Many are the lamentations of electricity consumers who have endured an age-long epileptic power supply from an inefficient state-owned power firm. The question now is how soon will the new owners of the power firms effect a change in the sector ? Juliet Alohan x-rays the issues
The plight of electricity consumers was again brought to the fore during a Power Consumer Assembly (PCA) and road show organised by the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) in Bauchi State which falls under the Jos Distribution Company (Disco).
The enlightenment campaign, according to NERC, is part of efforts to acquaint consumers with their rights and obligations in view of the transition to a private sector-driven electricity industry. Similar programmes have been organised in other parts of the country while more are yet to come, preparatory for the electricity market.
Lamenting the plight of the consumers in Das local government area, Sadiq Yusuf, president, Das Youth Awareness Forum and chairman for Coalition of Civil Society for Good Governance, said their major issue bothers on inadequate supply of power in the face of “crazy” estimated bills.
He said: “The issue is whenever you see steady power, it’s towards the end of the month when the officials are about to come and make collections. There isn’t electricity when customers want to make best use of it; they give it when it pleases them usually late at night when everyone is asleep and unable to make use of it for commercial activities.
“They just come out and take undue reward from citizens. If there is light, nobody will complain about payment, we want to pay our bill, but the light is not there. If they want to improve on their income, they should also improve on their services to consumers.”
On metering, Yusuf noted that most consumers were unmetered while some have the old analogue meters and are subjected to “crazy” estimated bills, adding that consumers in Das were yet to begin the use of prepaid electricity meters as none had been installed in the locality.
Another consumer in Toro, Aliyu Umar, complained of protracted negligence of consumers, adding that they were happy over the takeover, but wondered when improvement of services can be felt.
But countering their positions, the business manager, Yelwa Business Unit, Muritala Inua, while commending NERC for engaging in such orientation for consumers in the area stated that the customers do not pay their bills as and at when it is due.
He explained that while only a few customers pay their bills, most do not unless a disconnection exercise is carried out, adding that their officials sometime end up being attacked with weapons when they go out for disconnection.
“We are facing lots of challenges in Das. The nature of power supply is a general challenge, there is the issue of load shedding, sometimes due to fault on the transmission line, but all the customers want is light and they put the blame on us,” he said. He pointed out that vandalism of power equipment by members of the locality also results in blackout in the area.
The business manager of the Bauchi Unit, Mr Ibrahim Mahdi, equally noted that the poor allocation of 5-10mw instead of 50mw in the state was the reason for previous inadequate supply, adding that there was now a new rotation of electricity load allocation among geopolitical zones which has improved supply to 12 hours daily.
Also in his response to consumers complaints, the Toro Business Unit manager of the defunct PHCN, Mr Mansir Nakande, stated that the unit would soon commence the distribution of prepaid meters in major towns and designated centres where prepaid cards can be accessed while affordable non-prepaid meters will be distributed in the rural areas.
Meanwhile, the president of the Coalition for Civil Societies in Bauchi State, Jinjiri Garba, accused PHCN staff of allegedly being involved in vandalism and illegal connections without being penalised. While lamenting unfair dealings in metering consumers who were not often adequately informed, he urged NERC to strictly monitor the new investors for proper practice.
However, NERC’s principal manager, Government and Consumer Affairs Division, Shittu Shaibu, who represented the commission’s chairman, Dr Sam Amadi, said the purpose of the forum was to create an atmosphere where consumers and operators can come together to air their views in order to ensure that both parties get fair treatment.
He said the commission has asked the business unit to respond to the customers in line with its regulations. “We have specific regulation on every aspect of the issues that were raised, so if there is any problem in terms of a customer being billed unfairly without getting supply, we intervene,” Shaibu said.
He added that it was the responsibility of NERC to bring to the knowledge of electricity consumers their rights and obligations in the emerging electricity market so as to clear out areas of conflict, adding that where both parties fail to amicably resolve the issues between themselves it would be taken up by the commission.
Meanwhile, hopes that the situation will soon change may be far in coming, this is against the background that various investors who spoke at a workshop recently organised by NERC in Abuja made it clear that there was the need to manage expectations as a turnaround of the market cannot be sudden.
According to the investors, time will be required for them to conduct a survey of the metering gap in the market and decide how to effectively close the gap. This, therefore, implies that expectations by consumers of a drastic change as soon as the new owners takeover is not realistic. It is only hoped that they won’t have to wait for too long.-Leadership
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