The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Benin Disco

  • Benin DisCo connects Omozogie-Uteh community to grid

    RESidents of Omozogie in Uteh Community, Ikpoba Okha Local Government Area of Edo State last week were connected to the national grid by the Benin Electricity Distribution Company Plc (BEDC) after years of no electricity supply. A substation was eventually inuagurated to link the community to the grid.

    The inuaguration, which started with a town hall meeting organised by the community, had in attendance BEDC management team led by its Head, Community Relations Officer, Mrs Virginia Osineme, Business Manager of Ikpoba Hill, Mrs. Ekaete Ntukidem and her Business Head Distribution, Mamah an engineer, Odionwere electricity committee members and residents of Uteh Omozogie community.

    The town hall meeting was meant to brief the residents on the need to see the substation as a collective responsibility, which should be protected against vandalism and other forms of energy theft.

    Addressing the meeting, Mrs Osineme said: “The protection of the substation is everybody’s business. If there is no light, you know who to meet and talk to. If you see anybody in the substation that is not authorised by BEDC and the electricity committee, he or she is a vandal and should be apprehended.”

    Osineme used the opportunity to educate the people of the community on basic safety tips and the need for proper earthing of their premises, the importance of engaging licensed electricians to wire their houses and the need to avoid substandard electrical accessories. She pleaded with the community leaders to work with BEDC to educate their children, youths and wives on the importance of electricity safety and help disseminate the safety tips.

    Mrs Ntukidem commended the community for its patience throughout the process of connecting them to the national grid. According to her, meters have been properly installed and functional to provide the customers with fair and transparent billing. “Please, ensure no new wire is connected illegally to the network, we will know because of the check meter attached to the transformer, vend as at when due and don’t allow electricians to tamper with the transformer,” she said.

    The General, Okae-Don, Uteh, Mr Iyoha Omozogie, lauded BEDC for keeping fate with the community saying “we thank the management and staff of BEDC for how they have been able to direct us in ensuring Omozogie community is connected to the national grid”.

    We also thank the members of the community for their selfless donations and doggedness in ensuring the yearnings of the people become a reality. We now have light in Omozogie.” According to Iyoha, the community has also set up an electricity committee  that will be working with BEDC in ensuring meters were not bypassed in order to mitigate energy losses, quick response to faults and protection of the newly installed substation.

  • Save us from Benin Disco oppression

    SIR: Despite the terrible conditions of things in the country presently, it is still gratifying that there is an avenue to intimate the government of Nigeria and the outside world of what is happening to us in this part of the country. I am writing about the outage of electricity in the following towns in Akoko North West Local Government of Ondo State, namely, Irun, Ogbagbi, Eshe, Surulere, Ojeka, Oyimo and Gbonyin Local Government of Ekiti State namely Imesi, Ode, Egbe, Agbado, Aigbegba etc, for the past 12 months without any explanation by the Benin Distribution Company (Disco) that serves this large area of the two states. All that we have heard are based on rumours that some people fought with disco officials in one of the towns, that some agents collect money on the instructions of the disco but did not remit it to the company, and that people have not been paying their bills.

    Now, one will wonder how any of these reasons or even all of them justifies the cutting off of this large area of more than one and a half million people away from the supply of power for a whole year. In these areas, we have people who represent them in the House of Assembly, the House of Reps and the Senate, but their attitude confirms the assertion of the public that they only represent their pockets and that they have no interest in whatever befalls those who “elected” them. There are also many so-called big people who hail from these areas but they are too timid or too comfortable with what they receive from the government to be able to stand up for their people. Most of them don’t even live among the people or visit them at all and when people meet them to let them know their conditions, they refuse to make any effort on their behalf.

     

    As for the almighty disco at Benin, the questions one would ask in the wake of all these rumours are many. First, if some people fought with their staff, are there no legal means or ways to deal with such people instead of punishing this large population of human beings for one year? Second, if their so-called agents collect money on their behalf and fail to remit it to them, should they punish those who paid this money instead of those who collected this money and refused to remit it to them?  Third, if some people refuse to pay their bills, can they not disconnect such people and allow those who pay their bills to enjoy light?

    And finally, if prepaid meters had been supplied to people and disco rely on what people consume to make their revenue, would they have ignored this large area for a year without any revenue from the area?

    Please if we are bona fide citizens of country, let the minister in charge of power go into this matter and protect us from this oppression from the Benin Disco.

     

    • Micheal Adedayo Ajayi,

    Irun Akoko, Ondo State.

  • Benin Disco installs 36,000 pre-payment meters

    The Benin Electricity  Distribution (BEDC)   installed 36,000 pre-payment meters in 2014.

    Its Executive Director, Commercial, Mr. Abu Ismail-Ejoor, made this known at the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) stakeholders’ forum on the Credited Advanced Payment for Metering Implementation (CAPMI) in Benin City.

    The Chairman of NERC, represented by Mary Awolokun, Commissioner, Engineering, Standards and Safety, said the commission was  touring all distribution companies to meet with the customers and get their feedback on the CAPMI implementation in all the Discos.

    She said the commission would ensure that meters were made available to customers under the advanced payments scheme within the statutory 45 days allowed by the commission for all Discos to do so.

    According to Awolokun, the commission will  sanction distribution companies that fail to supply meters to their customers within the  time frame.

    Ismail-Ejoor said metering of customers was key to the company’s operations.

    He said in the last one year, an average of 3,000 meters monthly were installed by the firm, adding that this was a significant step in bridging the metering gap and eliminating estimated billing from its billing platform.

    Ismail-Ejoor said though the company was eager to increase its installation capacity to see that more meters were installed within the statutory 45-day deadline, it had been hampered by  some addresses supplied by customers.

    He said in the first quarter of this year, BEDC would migrate its customers on the pre-payment meters to online real time vending system, which would allow its customers to purchase electricity tokens round the clock.

  • Benin Disco loses N1.8b to non-payment of bills

    ABOUT 60 per cent of electricity consumers under the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) do not pay their bills,  the Managing Director of the firrm, Mrs. Funke Osibodu, has said.

    Mrs. Osibodu, who spoke when  the Senate Committee on Privatisation visited the headquarters of the company as part of its oversight functions, said the firm has N1.8 billion debts from bills.

    She solicited the Senate’s assistance in curbing power theft by enforcing long jail term for offenders.

    She urged the Senate to lend its support towards providing a lasting solution to the incessant gas shortage and ensure generation  of additional 5000Megawatts in the short term.

    Other assistance sought by her, included fast-tracking transmission projects in the network and the government intervention to meet shortfall in revenue/tariff restructuring.

    Mrs. Osibodu said 200,000 of its customers were on estimated billing, adding that the BEDC planned to recruit an Accounting firm to review those on estimated billing to get it right.

    The BEDC boss listed achievements of the company within seven months of its operation to include improved customer services, introduction of e-bills platform, metering of 11kv feeders, mapping and rehabilitation of all 33 kv feeders among others.

    She said the BEDC has partnered the Elisade University to direct students of the institution to Power Engineering courses with practical approach.

    Chairman of the Committee, Senator Olugbenga Obadara, expressed optimism that the $265million planned investment of the BEDC would bring about monumental growth of the company as well as improved power supply.

    Senator Obadara said their visit was to ensure that the 17 successor companies are conforming to the agreement they signed with the Federal Government.

    According to him, “Nigerians are expecting great improvement from the new investors that took over generation and distribution companies. They want to see development and availability of power. They want to see huge investment from these people that bought them. The reason for going round is to encourage them and energise them to do what is needed and to see whether they are conforming to the agreement they signed.”

    “We are collating all the data we are having from every one of them for a thorough input making sure that more resources are available to the transmission company.