FCT: Reps task Abuja DISCO on electricity supply

 John Ofikhenua, Abuja

THE House of Representatives Committee on Privatization and Commercialization on Saturday charged the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC), Mr. Ernest Mupwaya on 24 hours daily power supply to the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in the next one year. The charge came on the heels of the expansion plan that he presented to the committee which included non-outage in the city in the “next level”, which he did not put a timeframe to.  But the committee urged him to fulfill the pledge of 24 hours /daily supply to the FCT in the next one year.

According to Mupwaya, the company has already moved to supply the over 2,000 shop in Wuse market 24/7 from the first interconnected mini grid in Nigeria. His words: “We are also targeting a grid to give 24/7 to all industries which is stage one, which is estimated to supply 50mw. Once we do this and stabilize, the next level is to move FCT to 24/7.” Earlier, the Chief Executive Officer informed the committee that constraints, such as non-payment of bills by the Ministries Departments and Agencies, lack of cost reflective tariff and harassment of the DisCos’ officials when trying to collect bills from the barracks were some of the drawbacks that the AEDC was contending with.

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He also told the committee that the root cause of the liquidity challenge is the differential between the charges from the electricity Generation Companies and that of the Nigerian Electricity Bulk Trading (NBET) Plc. Mupwaya noted that as much as the AEDC loves to borrow funds for more capital expenditure, it cannot demonstrate its ability to pay back to the lenders because NBET has raised its charges by 16 percent. He also explained why customers have to pay for their meter, stressing that the “meter has been moved out of the revenue provision.

The only provision which is there now is MAP. The question is that there was a meter. The life of the meter is 10 years, and if the life of the meter has expired, it means that a new meter has to be bought. The provision there is that the customer has to buy the meter.” The meter, he said, has been removed from the Capital Expenditure of the Discos by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) which has appointed a Mater Asset Provider to handle the metering issues.