Unsettling indications emerged last week that the deteriorating power supply in Lagos may be attributable to the lack of capacity by the Eko and Ikeja Distribution Companies (DISCOs) to take the power allotted to them for Lagos electricity consumers. Daily Independent had reported that the Minister of Power, Professor Chinedu Nebo had disclosed that the Federal Government would soon direct the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to probe the failure of the two DISCOs to take delivery of the load of 1020 mega watts of electricity allocated to them, but rather receiving only 800 mega watts of power. The minister said: “In the last few days, we have been giving Lagos more power than Lagos is actually taking. That is an aspect that many Nigerians do not even know, that some DISCOs are not taking all the power that we are making available to them.”
“Lagos is targeted to get 26 percent of all the power generated and we tried to get close to that recently and they are not accepting all of it. We want to find out what is happening.” The allegation is indeed very grievous, and if proven is tantamount to economic sabotage against the nation by the DISCOs concerned. That is why we urge the FG never to allow the issue to be swept under the carpet given the unquantifiable losses the Lagos electricity consumers have suffered due to the alleged default by Eko and Ikeja DISCOs in supplying the much needed power to them after it had been generated and delivered.
It continues to be a national embarrassment that Nigeria, the largest economy in Africa currently generates a paltry 4,000-mega watts of power for her 170 million people while a much less populated South Africa generates 40,000 megawatts. The privatization of the power sector had given a glimmer of hope to Nigerians that their days of woe regarding epileptic power supply would soon be over.
Under the privatization arrangement the Power Holding Company (PHCN) was unbundled into Generating Companies (GENCOs) and Distribution Companies (DISCOs) which supposedly reputable companies bought into through a competitive bidding process and were thus assigned to take charge of power generation and distribution in various parts of the country. But so soon after the power sector privatization, the hope of improved power supply in Nigeria has turned forlorn with electricity supply going from bad to worse while government, GENCOs and DISCOs trade blames.
The GENCOs accuse the FG of failing to fulfill their obligation in the MOU which is the supply of gas by the NNPC to the GENCOs to power their generating plants while the DISCOs complain of decayed distribution infrastructure across the country which hinders their capacity to supply power to electricity consumers. What Nigerians want is steady, adequate and sustainable power supply; enough of the blame game. The consequences of years of epileptic power supply are too well known- numerous industries have closed down their operations, relocating from the country due to high cost of generating power for their operations with loss of the much needed jobs, thus compounding unemployment in the country.
High cost generating power has made most surviving Nigerian business uncompetitive. This is unacceptable. According to media reports, the Eko and Ikeja DISCOs have rebutted the charge that they are not taking the entire power load allocated to them for Lagos. We therefore welcome the decision of the FG to probe the alleged dereliction by the DISCOs to fulfill their contractual obligations in the supply of power to Lagos consumers considering the strategic status of Lagos as the economic capital of the nation, and any organization found culpable must be appropriately sanctioned.
The DISCOs have their jobs cut out for them and Nigerians will no longer accept excuses. Why did the DISCOs not conduct adequate due diligence before buying into the business? Thorough due diligence should have revealed the extent of infrastructural deficit for power distribution in the country and the level of investment needed to bring it up to standard. The DISCOs must leverage on the funding windows initiated by the FG to deliver their obligation to electricity consumers.
The DISCOs must invest adequately in upgrading the vastly decayed distribution facilities such as power lines, deploy adequate transformers and provide pre-paid meters to all consumers in their areas of operations. The current situation whereby DISCOs rip off consumers through “estimated bills” and all sorts of unjustified charges must be discontinued forthwith. NERC needs to be alive to its regulatory responsibilities to whip the DISCOs and GENCOs into line and thus protect the nation’s long-suffering electricity consumers. The FG on her part must endeavour to fulfill her part of the MOU for the power sector privatization in order to have the moral sanctity to call the GENCOs and DISCOs to order when necessary.
