By Thompson ABISOLA
Network for Electricity Consumers Advocacy of Nigeria (NECAN), has described as untrue, claim by DisCos’ investors that they have not made return on investment in distribution assets, five years after privatisation.
The Chairman of NECAN, Chief Tom Akingbogun, said this in Abuja on Thursday. The DisCos had through Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED), investors in distribution chain, told journalists that they had not made profit from their 1.4 billion dollars (N427billion) invested on the distribution assets.
They attributed their inability to break even in the business to the accumulated N1.3trillion tariff gap and called on Federal Government to provide solution to the tariff gap.
Akingbogun said: “There is no truth, how can they say that, there is no way they can justify that they have not made profit.
“If they have not made profit, what changes have they made, are they operating like NEPA, they have not done anything, and government is making rules for them to make profit.
“What they are doing is twisting government arm by saying we all want to go, they just want to justify another increment and they have not metered the customers.
“If you are selling a product and you don’t have a measure of selling it and you are saying you are not selling enough, how do we know?
“Remember they are supposed to have metered everybody in this country and they have not done that till now. “
In a statement signed by him on behalf NECAN in Abuja, Akingbogun further said: “Is the statement that the DisCos are losing money the truth? Can we put to test that DisCos did all that is needful, has enumeration of all consumers been done? No.
“Without full enumeration, many consumers pay for energy but their payment disappears before getting to the DisCos (NEPA 1, 2 and 3 are still alive five years after NEPA’s death)
“There is the issue of consumers’ complaints of payment that are not recorded by the DisCos, hence some income are not captured for several reasons.
“We have complaints from pre-paid meter users that most DisCos accept only cash, not even Point of Sale (POS) payment or electronic transfers, why is this so? Could this amount to the DisCos understating their revenue?
“With understated revenues, NERC has approved several tariff increases, pushed up unit cost of electricity to between 150-200 per cent in five years, thereby protecting electricity investors to the detriment of other investors in Nigeria.
“NECAN observes that some DisCos revenue centres have no DisCos’s signage or notices, yet people lined up to buy energy units, hopefully the DisCos will record income from such centres.
“Some DisCos did not sell energy units to willing customers for up to one month or more due to poor infrastructure. Who is responsible for such revenue loss? .Yet, we, customers pay for energy theft.
“Some DisCos do selective energy supply to areas where they will make more money and leave masses in darkness, yet the masses are placed on estimated billing.
“How do we account for income from estimated billings? We had cases of DisCos computers having arithmetic errors, could it be bill manipulation or their Microsoft excel is different?
“NERC has done the wishes of the DisCos, that the DisCos have forgotten they are private companies like anybody.
“Many times, the DisCos run foul of the law, Multi Year Tariff Order (MYTO) is changed, the minor tariff review widow used to increase tariff is over 100 per cent, is this fair to all concerned ,“ the NECAN Chairman asked.
He decried that the rules of privatisation crafted by civil servants made easy for investors to ask for refund after using the licence.
“I wish I can ask for my money back from the dealer that I bought my used car from after five years. The Jos DisCo knows what to do if they are serious of leaving, coming to the press to abuse Minister of Power will not confuse the public.
“The Jos and other DisCos are just playing the old trick to justify another upward review of tariff. (If not for the election, it would have been done).“
“If any DisCos is tired of thinking of being resourceful and working hard for their income, let them go.
