Sahara Reporters Latest News Sunday 12th May 2019
Sahara Reporters Latest News Today and headlines on some of the happenings and news trend in the Country, today 12/05/19
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target=_blank>FAAN To Carry Out Background Check Of Staff After Saudi Drug Incident
The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) says it is collaborating with security agencies to undertake background checks of all personnel working in the nation’s airports.Saleh Dunoma, FAAN managing director, told NAN that the check is part of the new security measures to bring sanity to airports.According to him, the recent incident at Aminu Kano International Airport that led to the wrongful arrest of an innocent Nigerian in Saudi Arabia was unfortunate.“It is very unfortunate that the incident happened and we found ourselves in this but we have gotten to the root of that.“I attended meetings personally in Kano on three occasions when this saga is going on and we have reviewed the total security architecture in Kano and from that review, we have implemented over 80 per cent.“Everybody that is working at the airport, whether you are FAAN staff, NAHCON staff, SAHCOL staff, airline staff because these are people that interact with passengers and we have agreed that everybody must go through a background check.“This background check would be carried out by the appropriate security agencies in this country and then if they find anything doubtful about your character or anything about you we do away with you.”Dunoma assured that the authority had also introduced new measures to airport security, adding that new equipment had been provided to assist in curbing the human issues within airports.He said that the effort led to the arrest of the culprits in the Kano saga, saying that no effort would be spared to rid the airports of bad eggs.“It is very unfortunate but we are up to the task, we are on top of the game as you could recall that those people were apprehended and they are facing justice.“We cannot say close the airport and sack everybody but every agency is doing something drastic about their staff.“We are looking at even the innocent ones because we know that majority of them there are innocent, they are just doing their work but we are checking everybody and making sure that you have the right character and that we can trust you.”
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target=_blank>Watching Game Of Thrones Makes You Potential ‘Candidate For Hell’ Says Ghanaian Pastor
Victor Eghan, a Ghanian pastor, has declared those who watch the popular Games Of Thrones TV show as potential candidates for hell.
The pastor stated that the show contravenes the tenets of Christianity.
In a post Eghan put on Instagram, he premised his claim on some shocking statistics he stumbled on somewhere. He said the statistics revealed that the the popular TV show includes 865 deaths, 17 rapes (including attempted ones) and 144 scenes of naked people (with 83.7% being women).
Eghan pointed out in 2016, the show was in a legal battle with a p*** website, P*** Hub, for using their explicit clips as it is a breach of copyright of HBO.
According to him, Game of Thrones preaches immorality by bringing out the fact that a lot of p*** stars like Jessica Jenson and Samantha Bentley were used in the production of the show.
The young pastor ended the post by admonishing the massive fans of the American fantasy drama TV.
The concluding part of the post read: “Dear Christian and Game of Thrones fan, is this the kind of content you want to fill your mind with? What happened to Philippians 4:8? Is this the kind of things you want your daughter or son to engage in? Rape, murder, and immorality?
“If you’re so attached to Game of Thrones that you’re getting angry with me, then who are you worshipping? GOD or GOT? One letter makes a big difference. And that one letter change can make a big difference when you stand before GOD on that day” he concludedcx
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target=_blank>Osinbajo Visits Bauchi To ‘Commission Projects’ Amidst Dusk To Dawn Curfew
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has visited Bauchi state to amidst rising insecurity in the state.The visit co-incides with a dusk to dawn curfew imposed on four communities located on the outskirts of Bauchi metropolis following breach of the peace in those areas.A statement signed by Muhammad Nadada-Umar, Secretary to the State Government (SSG) said that the curfew, from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., would remain in force till further notice.Mr Nadada-Umar named the affected communities as Gudum Fulani, Gudum Hausawa, Gudum Sayawa and Bigi.Narrating what led to the imposition of the curfew, the SSG said on Thursday, May 9, 2019, at about 9.00 a.m., some youth in the affected areas had a misunderstanding among themselves, which subsequently turned to violent clashes between some residents of Gudum Sayawa and Gudum Hausawa Communities.Osibanjo while in the state comissioned Burra Rural Electrification Project in Burra, Ningi Local Government Area.
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target=_blank>Kaduna 215MW Power Plant, A Case Of Mental Bankruptcy By Ettu Mohammed
The Senate Joint Committee on Gas and Power, Steel Development and Metallurgy in 2017 demanded the suspension of the inauguration of the 215MW Kaduna Power Plant following a disagreement with the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing over its plan to run the plant on diesel.
They were spot on.
Guess what In 2018. The Federal Government of Nigeria Budgeted N678m for FUEL AND O&M FOR COMMISSIONING AND OPERATION OF KADUNA POWER PLANT. How they managed to approve these funds calls for concern. It means they have always embarked on eye service.
This cash will be thrown away because less than 50% will be recouped on operating the plant at whatever capacity.
The cash budgeted for the plant in 2018 cannot fund 1MW network fired by diesel in a year.
1 MW network will consume 2.5 Million litres of Ago in a year. By the time you add other costs you re running at a loss.
When they know we live in a country where we need all the money available.
Running a 215MW or 215,000kW on Diesel for 1 hour will bring cost to I litre of Diesel produces around 3-4kWh of Energy that is an average of 3.5kWh energy depending on the efficiency of the generating set, they type of Diesel used and the type of professionals working on the Engines.
3.5kWh =1 Litre of diesel
215,000kWh = 61,427litres of diesel to run every hour and a total of 1.2million litres if running at 80% capacity
734,000 litres if running @50% capacity
294,000 litres if running @20% capacity
Average cost of diesel is N200/litre
@80% we will be spending N240m/day on diesel
@50% we will be spending N147m/day on diesel
@20% we will be spending N59m/day on diesel
From my 7 years experience on Energy Generation using Diesel fired engines the Cost of maintenance ranges between (N30,000-100,000)/2 MW for diesel fired generator embarked upon every 250hours to prevent against breakdown.
Maintenance on 215MW generating network will cost around N8.5million /250hours.
A standard Generator has a life span ranging between (15000- 40,000) hrs of the engines) cost of routine maintenance will be N935 million excluding major breakdown will amount to about N0.15k /kWh if 215 nos of 1MW are synchronized.
Energy cost using diesel is calculated as follow
Diesel cost N200/litre
35% energy conversion
Cost of plant is N78.5bn
This can be recouped back over 27500 hours if running @ 80 capacity via depreciation cost. This will be N13.19/kWh over 27500 hours against 80% generator capacity.
It would be a waste of money if a plant is built and it is not running at full capacity.
(0.35 x 200) + N13.19+ 0.15/kWH
Cost of Energy will be N83.34/kWh at generation without margin.
Sellers margin can’t be less than 10% taking the cost to N92/kWh
As I write Energy is sold averagely between N24-36/kWh
Who will bear the loss of N62/kWh that is 207% loss to Tax Payers if the same energy is pushed to the grid to and sold at N30/kWh?
Ettu Mohammed writes from Lagos
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target=_blank>Four Killed, Many Wounded In Fresh Attack On Maiduguri
At least four persons have shot and killed while one other sustained gunshot wounds when Boko Haram terrorists attacked Moranti village near Maiduguri on Saturday morning, a Civilian Joint Task Force source said.The incident occurred at about 2am on Saturday at Moranti village behind 33 artillery barrack in Maiduguri, Konduga local government area of the state capital. The CJTF source who participated in the rescue operations told Saharareporters that the attackers shot sporadically civilians, operated unhindered and escaped unchallenged.”We started hearing gunshots around 2am at our neighborhood, the suspected to be Boko Haram shot dead four persons, they were in the pool of blood when we got there. They rained bullets on them.”Luckily, the fifth person survived the gunshot wounds, he was shot near his upper arm, he is now receiving treatment at State Specialist Hospital Maiduguri” the source added.The Rescue team confirmed that 4 lost their lives and one person has referred to hospital for treatment.
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target=_blank>Thugs Attack Protesting Youths At The Emir’s Palace In Kano
Thugs today in Kano attacked some young people who were protesting their displeasure at the creation of four new emirates in the state.
The youths stated that the creation of the new Emirates is politically motivated and the process should be immediately halted by Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje.
Khalid Sunusi Kani, Senate President of Gwale Youth Parliament, speaking with SaharaReporters said the protest was embarked upon because Kano youths are not pleased with the creation of the Emirates.
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BREAKING: Kano Now Has Five Emirates As Ganduje Gives Assent To Bill
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“The reason we are doing the protest is that we are not satisfied with the decision of the Executive Governor of Kano State with the creation of four additional emirates in Kano state.
“We consulted with different youths from different Local Government Areas in Kano State and we have observed that majority of the youths in the state with the approval of the creation of new Emirates.”
Kani explained that the protesters were attacked at the Emir’s palace by thugs who are doing the bidding of the government to silent anybody or group speaking against the creation of the new Emirates.
“We gathered at the Emir’s Palace and unfortunately thugs came there and disorganized the protest.
“The thugs attacked us, disorganized the protest and everybody was sent away from the venue of the protest.”
He, however, said that the protesting youths were lucky to escape without sustaining any injury.
Condemning the creation of the new Emirates, Kani explained that the decision is “politically motivated and borne out of self-interest,” while also calling on the Governor to reconsider and immediately stop the process.
He said, “We are not happy because we believe the bill that was signed by the Governor, which was instituted by Ibrahim Salisu of Kano State House of Assembly, is politically motivated and born out of self-interest.
“That is why we called on the Kano state to reconsider the request because it is contrary to popular opinion. As far as we are practising democracy, we told them popular opinion must be respected.”
SaharaReporters had exclusively reported why Ganduje is backing the creation of the new Emirates.
Ganduje, despite a court order restraining him, has presented the letters of appointment to the new Emirs at a ceremony held at the state capital today.
Those assigned and presented letters include Aminu Ado Bayero, the son of Late Emir of Kano, Ado Bayero, as the Emir of Bichi; Ibrahim Abulkadir as the Emir of Gaya; Tafida Abubakar as the Emir Of Rano and Abubakar Ibrahim II as the Emir of Karaye.
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target=_blank>FEATURE: Why 15-Year-Old Ekele Franklin, Best 2019 UTME Candidate, May Not Be Offered Admission By UNILAG
The Joint Admissions And Matriculation Board announced the results for the 2019 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination in the early hours of Saturday.
From the breakdown and analysis given by Ishaq Oloyede, the Registrar of the board, it became pretty clear that, just like last year, another precocious student, emerged as the overall best student.
Ekele Franklin, 15, is this year’s superstar!
To score the highest mark in UTME, at whatever age, is no mean feat. To do it at the age of 15, when most of your contemporaries are still tied to their mother’s apron strings, is breathtakingly incredible. And when you consider the number of candidates that sat for the Examination(over 1.7million!) Franklin and his kith and kin have every reason to be on cloud noun. The teenager from Imo state is now the envy of his age-mates.
However, Franklin’s joy may be short-lived, the impressive result may not secure him the desired admission for this reason.
Is it fair, however, that such a brilliant mind be held back by age?
An Unwritten But Attractive LawThere is an unwritten law, effective though, that puts a limit on the age by which a student can start his/her academic odyssey in any public University in Nigeria.
According to the unwritten law, the ‘standard’ and official age for admission into public University is Sixteen(16). The admission seeker is expected to be sixteen by the 1st of October in the year of admission if not all is the hope of securing admission will be a mirage.
For the reason, Franklin whose official age might not be offered admission for his dream course at the University of Lagos, come to the beginning of a new session except he is 16 by then.
Are There Precedents?Yes. Thousands of brilliant admission seekers had been denied admission solely because of this unwritten but active law. Though most of the people that had been at the receiving end of this law are faceless, a case will suffice; That of Faith Oluwatomi Oyende.
Faith Oluwatomi Oyende, at the age of 21(now a graduate of biochemistry), graduated with a 4.68 cumulative grade point average, CGPA, to emerge the best graduating student from the Faculty of Science at the 21st convocation ceremony of Lagos State University (LASU).
While answering questions from the Vanguard Newspaper last year on how she achieved the feat, Faith said: “It is a long story. I actually wanted to become a medical doctor. But I was denied admission at both University of Lagos, UNILAG, and LASU because I was not yet 16years old.
Having finished secondary school at age 15, I wrote and passed the Joint Admission Matriculation Board Examination. But during the post-JAMB test, I was told I must have completed 16 years on or before October 1, 2011. Unfortunately, I was to be 16 on January 1, 2012.”
The same fate befell the brilliant Orishenye Okorogheye who, after having A1 in the students he sat for in May/June 2018 WASSCE, emerged as the best UTME candidate in 2018 at the age of 15 as well. He was stopped in his tracks while trying to apply to UNILAG for Post-UTME despite scoring 332.
Justification Of The LawThere are many justifications for this Law both from academics and counsellors. The summary of which is that most of the under-16 brilliant students are not ’emotionally mature’ to withstand the multi-tasking that tertiary education demands. Another reason is that they are still impressionable and may fall easy prey to the antics of the adults in the ivory tower.
Though the age-limit ‘policy’ has no legal backing it has become the gold standard for securing admission. Do you think the ‘law’ is retrogressive and be done away with?
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target=_blank>LIVE: It Is Appalling We Have An Ex-Military Man That Cannot Fight Insecurity – Security Analyst
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LIVE: It Is Appalling We Have An Ex-Military Man That Cannot Fight Insecurity – Security Analyst
LIVE: SaharaTV Interviews Frank Oyorhigho, Security Expert And Author, ‘National Security: The Background Option’.
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target=_blank>UPDATE: Ganduje Defies Court, Present Appointment Letters To New First-Class Emirs
Kano State Governor Abdullahi Ganduje has presented letters of appointment to four new first-class Emirs in the state.
The governor presented the letters on Saturday during a ceremony held at the state capital.
Those presented with the letters of appointment include Aminu Ado Bayero, the son of Late Emir of Kano, Ado Bayero, as the Emir of Bichi; Ibrahim Abulkadir as the Emir of Gaya; Tafida Abubakar as the Emir Of Rano and Abubakar Ibrahim II as the Emir of Karaye.
Ganduje during the presentation said the creation of an additional four Emirates will make the Kano traditional system more efficient.
“This is an arrangement that will make the system more efficient. The issue of education, security, and agriculture are too heavy to be allowed on a centralised traditional system.
“So, we know that this present structure will certainly promote security and education,” he said.
The date for the coronation of the new emirs will subsequently be announced by the state government.
A high court sitting in Kano had earlier on Friday ordered Governor Ganduje, the Kano State House of Assembly, the Speaker of the Assembly, the clerk and the attorney-general of the state from implementing the law creating the new Emirates.
This was after Governor Ganduje signed into law the bill on the creation of four additional Emirates.
The court order follows an ex parte motion filed by Honorable Sule Gwarzo, asking the court to restrain the respondents from taking any action of creating four additional Emirates.
The court directed all parties in the suit to maintain the status quo pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice
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Five Years After, DISCOS Still Dancing Disco! By Kelechukwu Ogu
Pictures of Metres in several parts of Ijora
Sample of Bills in the Ijora Area
Sample of Bills in the Ijora Area
Sample of Bills in the Ijora Area
Sample of Bills in the Ijora Area
The expectation was high! The general belief was that as soon as the state-owned electricity generating and distribution company, the National Electric Power Authority, better known by its acronym, NEPA, was sold to private individuals, the country would start experiencing uninterrupted power supply.
Not only that, but the people also hoped that the practice of sending “crazy” bills to customers or estimated billing, that is the practice of billing customers without metres, would be a thing of the past.
But six years after privatization, when the National Electric Power Authority changed to the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, how have the consumers fared?
Sample of Bills in the Ijora Area
Sample of Bills in the Ijora Area
Sample of Bills in the Ijora Area
Sample of Bills in the Ijora Area
Long before the electricity assets in Nigeria were privatized, customers struck deals with agents known as marketers, to pay less than the amount charged by the Nigerian Electricity Power Authority (NEPA). Being a government-owned agency disinterested in profit making, such excesses went unnoticed.
In 2013, PHCN’s assets were broken into six generation companies, a transmission company retained by the government and 11 distribution companies— Discos.
The expectation was that, old things would pass away and that the shenanigans of the past, would go with the old ways.
It turned out to be a pipe dream.
The Discos kept up with the old practice and failed to enumerate its customers to enable it bill them according to their consumption.
Ismail Aromire, son of the traditional ruler of Ijora community said the Eko Electricity Distribution Company, showed no interest in undertaking verification of its customer base in Ijora Oloye until it was pressurized to do so by the community. He says he took that initiative to bring down the estimate on the bills charged each flat in Ijora Oloye. That evaluation revealed a known secret: many houses were not registered as customers on the company’s database.
“Everybody was like we’re having crazy bills- the bill is too much, some didn’t even have before- like new structures. As the Eko Disco officials sent to monitor electricity in the area are replaced after each quarter, they just advise themselves, ‘please don’t bother creating bill. We will be collecting the money with our hand to go and pay on their behalf’ and it goes into their pocket
“It was when we insisted on this enumeration that these irregularities were discovered,” he disclosed.
What was more disturbing, however, was how the Eko DISCO chose to solve the problem.
“When they [Eko DISCO] were doing the enumeration, they now said those that don’t have bill that they had been paying money illegally to some individuals that they should go and pay loss of revenue, so that they can use it to create bills for them.”
Some more bill samples from Ijora area
They were charged N5,000 for loss of revenue.
“We requested for the list- the streets and numbers of those who got ‘LOR’ so that we can know who and who is who. They did not give us. Instead of giving LOR of N5000 each, they joined five to six houses together and gave them a LOR in one person’s name.” This is one reason why distribution companies might be unable to collect 100 percent of the electricity delivered to customers.
Aromire further informed us that some people had been declared wanted on account of the Loss of Revenue. Five years after the DISCOS took over PHCN’s distribution assets, is it still possible to defraud the system or is the Ijora incident an isolated one?
Pictures of Metres in several parts of Ijora
Illegal Connections
Igando and Egbeda are two communities in the Alimosho local government of Lagos State. Many in these communities have not received prepaid meters and they are fed up with paying estimated bills. Some landlords have, however, devised a means of cutting down on their electrical expenses. A resident in the community who spoke to us on the condition of anonymity describes how it is done:
“There are few prepaid meters in this area. Most of the houses use analog meters. So what they do is to get an agent of the distribution company- Ikeja Electricity distribution company to run 30 percent of their light on the meter and the remaining 70 percent directly to the transformer.
“Since the Disco guys can see the meter reading in their office, they will not border to check if the landlords are cheating or not.”
I decided to tail one of these rogue agents to see if a deal could be truly struck.
Seun had just helped one of his clients in Egbeda to adjust her connection a fortnight back; the client was spared the terror of discovery suffered by five landlords in the nearby Igando. They were hoodwinked by officials from the Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company, IKEDC, on a routine inspection.
We begin our attempt to monitor Seun by paying a visit to his customer in Egbeda. To avoid any suspicion, my colleague made an introductory call to him with the woman’s phone.
For N25, 000, Seun agreed to read the meter at an agreed location. He said we should endeavor to pay our last two bills fully, then he would be able to take over. He would also charge N10, 000 for periodic inspections to ensure the connection is not detected. Unauthorized connections like these, have formed silt on the track of the maturing Nigerian Electricity Supplying Industry.
The regulatory authority was no less worried about these ugly developments.
In December 2017, The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Company, NERC issued a directive titled: “Order on unauthorized access, meter tampering, and by-pass order no: NERC/REG/41/2017.” The circular prescribed a fine of N50, 000 for any resident with a single phase meter who gains illegal access to electricity.
“Any single phase residential customer that gains unauthorized access to electricity by tampering or metre bypass shall be reconnected upon payment of the reconnection costs of N50, 000.00 initial and 75,000.00 for subsequent incidents,” the circular directed.
Residential customers who use three-phase meters will pay 100 percent higher than single phase customers if caught.
“For three phase residential customers, violators of this order are expected to pay N100, 000.00 for the initial incident and a fine of N150, 000.00 for subsequent incidents,” the order said.
For maximum demand customers, the order directs the Discos to charge 350 percent of their last monthly reading before reconnection and 450 percent for subsequent breaches.
“The initial incident of unauthorized access to electricity by tampering or bypassing a Maximum Demand, MD meter shall attract a reconnection cost of 300% of the last authorized recorded monthly consumption of the customer. Subsequent incidents of unauthorized access to electricity by tampering or bypassing an MD meter shall attract a reconnection cost of 450% of the last authorized recorded monthly consumption of the customer.”
The regulators are not satisfied with ordering the distribution companies to impose penalties; they want to be able to secure jail terms for offenders as well. That intent was made known in a bill sent to the National Assembly on 12 December 2018.
NERC hopes to amend the clause to read that: “Any person who willfully taps, makes or causes to be made any connection with overhead, underground or underwater lines or cables, or service wires, or service facilities of a licensee; or (c ) damages or destroys an electric meter, apparatus, equipment, wire or conduit or causes or allows any of them to be so damaged or destroyed as to interfere with the proper or accurate metering of electricity shall be guilty of an offence punishable with terms of imprisonment for a period of not less than six months and not more than two years or a fine of N100,000 or both.”
Frustrated customers
Durosinmi-Etti runs a hotel on Odofin Street, Ijora; he uses a maximum demand meter. He is one of those customers that are sorely tempted to use backdoor ways to reduce the bill he receives monthly.
“Now, if they bring 150,000 I will pay N100, 000”, Durosinmi-Etti said in anger.
His hotel has three floors and his bills dramatically soared from N100, 000 to N200, 000. The businessman man who interrupted his lunch to attend to us, says being a diligent customer brings him no gain:
“The money I’m owing now is going up to N268, 000; the method they are using now is that, if they give you N150, 000 and you pay N100, 000, before the end of the month they will disconnect your light. I fought them and said I don’t want to see any PHCN official. They begged me and said I should pay N100, 000 out of the money and they would find a solution.”
Friday Ikewere is the Administration Manager of ENCON International Ltd. The company leases its offices out to different businesses. He says electricity charges are given to the customers on a per floor square meter basis every year. That billing system is dependent on the company having electricity charge for Eko Electricity Distribution Company.
When we met in October, something shook the foundation of that billing method:
“The money we charged them was based on the fact that over the years, the bill fluctuates between N50, 000 80, 000 to 100, 000,” Friday explains as the bill is presented to him.
“It has remained like that from last year even till May June. This month, it is N205, 000 I don’t understand.”
Ikewere is at a loss as to what he would tell his tenants who had paid their electricity charges at the beginning of the year. He says they will bear the brunt of the increase and add it to the charge on their tenancy in 2019.
Like Durosinmi-Etti, ENCON is a maximum demand customer. They are charged at a fixed rate, higher than customers under the residential classification system. These are the class of maximum demand customers:
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Encon Ltd and Jan Lodge and Suites will most likely fall under the C2 category. These customers are entitled to a transformer of their own and were not to be on estimated billing as from June 2017.
However, Durosinmi-Etti says he was not given a transformer.
Ikewere says officials from Eko DISCO wanted to change the firm’s meter under the guise that it was not reading properly. When we checked back with Ikewere, he said the bill for October was N189, 000 and that of November was N50, 000.
“For September they gave us a bill of N205, 000; we challenged it and they said that it was supposed to be our actual consumption. We wrote a letter and in October they brought it down to N189, 000. In November, they brought it down to N50, 000, what we used to pay before.
“Right now, they disconnected the light because we refused to pay the N189, 000 in October.”
Maximum demand metres are read manually and billed postpaid, they are simply at the mercy of what the discos say.
What NERC Quarterly results Say
In the third quarter of 2018, the distribution companies got an invoice of N147 billion but paid only N44 billion to the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Company (NBET). That left a shortfall of N103 billion in the market for that quarter. In the fourth quarter, however, the DISCOS received an invoice of N166 billion from NBET for energy purchased and Market Operator for service charge. The DISCOS, however, paid just N40.1 billion. In the third quarter, the DISCOS issued bills worth N151 billion, while it charged N161.8 in q4. The DISCOS collected an average of 90.4 billion or 55 percent of its bills in q3 and 101.2 billion or 62.5 per cent of its bills in q4. In q3, the Discos held on to N46.4 billion; it withheld 61.1 billion in the preceding quarter. What is surprising, however, is that the distribution companies billed less than what they were charged for in q4.
Electricity Customer Survey
After four years, the last two quarters of 2017 still indicated that the industry was not meeting up with its revenue obligations. Could the relationship between the electricity users connected to the national grid and relying on service from distribution companies be a symbol of the financial health of the industry? We carried out a survey and asked these questions:
Do you have prepaid meters?
Do you have a backlog of bills?
Do you pay your bills through third parties?
Has your distribution company come to find out how much power you consume and how much you can be billed?
We sampled the opinion of customers in two communities and six streets within Lagos state.
In Oshodi/Isolo Local Council Development Area, (LCDA), we received responses from 50 respondents in Adewale Adenuga, Joseph and Goloba Ashogbon streets. Out of the 50 persons interviewed, only one individual had a prepaid meter, 32 of them had backlogs, just one individual confessed to paying through channels other than the DISCO’s outlet and 23 have at some point received DISCO officials on enumeration visits.
In the Egbeda area of Alimosho LGA, we received responses from 40 persons. Eight of them said they have prepaid meters, 13 of them say they are behind on their bill payment, 23 of them say they pay through third parties, (banks) and 37 said officials of the corresponding distribution company have come to check on their electricity consumption.
What NERC quarterly results Say
The first quarter of 2018 was more positive than the last three months of 2017. The Discos charged customers N171.1 billion and collected N106 billion- 62.3 percent of the figure- 0.2 percent less than q4 2017. NBET and the market operator sent out an aggregate invoice of N163.1 billion and the DISCOS paid N51.2 billion- 31.4 percent. The Discos held on to N55.4 billion for sundry purposes and caused another shortfall of N112 billion. There was some marked improvement in the latest quarterly result released by NERC. It billed N173.7 billion and collected N111.5 billion or 64.2 percent. The bulk trader and the Market Operator sent an invoice of N161.4 billion to the discos and they remitted an increased 33.3 percent- N53.7 billion. The Discos held on to N58.7 billion and added N107.7 billion to the illiquidity of the industry.
In the four quarterly results released by NERC, it said;
“The major contributors to the financial crisis in the industry are tariff deficits, high technical and commercial losses exacerbated by consumers’ apathy arising from estimated billing and poor quality of supply in most load centres.” In its defence, the regulator rolled out the Metre Asset Provider regulation on April 3, 2018. James Momoh, Chairman of the regulatory commission, said at a conference between the meter providers and their direct clients-the Discos, that everyone who wants power in Nigeria will have a metre before 2020. This, however, does not address the challenge of a cost reflective tariff.
The Excuse of the distribution companies
The DISCOS have always maintained at diverse forums through the Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED), that the low cost of electricity in the country has made it impossible for the DISCOS to carryout asset upgrades and metering. While the NERC has maintained that the DISCOS hold on to a large share of the funds meant for the industry, the DISCOS have argued that they cannot use all the meager revenue they get to settle invoices from the Market Operator (MO)- an arm of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) and NBET. According to them, salaries and other operational expenses need to be looked into as well.
Sahara Reporters reached out to Godwin Idemudia, Head of Corporate Communications at Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC), to get the company’s perspective on some of the specific issues. Reacting to customers in Ijora Oloye receiving one LOR per five customers, he said:
“I have not seen the documents so I can’t say. But if anyone in the community has a problem they can go to the business unit under the Ijora bridge. What I know is we usually issue one LOR per customer And it is to say the customer should pay for what they have been consuming and not paying for. If the customer has a dispute with w=the Lor, they can always take it to be adjusted. Ismail Aromire- the traditional ruler’s son, had said when SaharaReporters went to the community that the issue had a=escalated and some officials were wanted. Idemudia, however, maintained that he had not heard of the happening.
Reacting to the findings that Maximum Demand Customers were billed unilaterally- contrary to NERC orders, Idemudia said:
“Maximum Demand customers are our biggest customers. When we are going to read their meter, we always make sure one person from our nearest station and an official of the business comes along. When the observation on Campbell street was put to him, Idemudia said:
“When there is an increase in in the hours of electricity received, you would expect the consumption to rise.” ‘Even if consumption has been constant throughout the year and changes in only ‘two months?’ the reporter interrupted.
“When these customers come to our office, they see that we billed them accordingly. And they go back okay,” he replied. He added that the company has the ‘I’ (Artificial Intelligence) technology to monitor the electricity consumption of the consumers. He also noted that approximately 80 percent of its over 500,000 customers have been metered. Idemudia revealed that EKEDC would have delivered 170,000 meters to electricity consumers within its network.
Kelechukwu Ogu is a Journalist, Researcher and Advocate For Social Change.
Email @ kocambel@gmail.com
Twitter @kocambel
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