….MDAs Owe EKEDC N144Bn Unpaid Bills – CEO
The Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Privatisation and Commercialisation, Hon. Hamisu Ibrahim, has pledged the committee’s determination to work with relevant committees in the House to pass a legislation on electricity theft in the country.
Speaking when he led other members of the committee on an oversight visit to the Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC) in Lagos on Monday, the Chairman decried the rate of electricity theft in the country and said the legislation would check the abuse.
The lawmaker called for collaboration between the committee and electricity power companies for effective and efficient power supply in the country in order to give the committee the opportunity to know the challenges facing the power companies with a view to providing legislative solutions.
He commended the EKEDC’s management for attaining and maintaining the best rated status amongst power distribution companies in the country and urged its management and staff to uphold the status.
According to him, the visit was in line with the legislative functions of the committee to oversee all privatised and concessioned enterprises by the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE).
He said the committee and the power companies would work closely to fight electricity theft by unpatriotic consumers and that the House had already passed a motion for the quick recovery of Ministries, Departments and Agencies’ (MDAs’) debts owed the power companies.
Also, a member of the committee, Hon. Decour Damnemunene, expressed concern over the categorisation of various customers in Band A which, she pointed out, had resulted in most electricity consumers defaulting in the payment for electricity they consume.
Welcoming the members, the acting Managing Director of EKEDC, Mrs. Rekhiat Momoh, gave a scorecard of the company and noted that the company remained the only Disco in the country that has reduced its ATC&C losses ratio to the barest minimum despite the challenges in the power sector.
Specifically, she disclosed EKEDC had reduced the ATC&C losses ratio from 35% in 2023 to 15.1% in 2024 and that the company had over 700,000 metered customers.
According to her, the Disco is working out modalities in collaboration with Federal Government’s Distribution Sector Recovery Programme (DISREP) to procure additional 92,000 meters for its customers nationwide.
Momoh further clarified that the distribution company had recorded improvements in technology, provision of meters and transformers even as she revealed that “it is the only Disco that fulfils its monthly obligations remittance to the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading (NBET) Company.”
She said the company was owed N144 billion by MDAs in its franchise area of operation and that the Nigerian Military, the Nigerian Police Force and other state government agencies had refused to pay their debts, thereby posing a challenge for the Disco’s operations.
