- Civil Society Advises Discos on Consumer Enumeration
The Network of Nigeria Civil Society Organisations has called on power distribution companies to intensify effort towards the enumeration of electricity consumers nationwide in order to establish the actual number of power users across the country.
According to the civil society, the huge financial deficit in Nigeria’s power sector is partly because many users of electricity who do not pay for the service they get from the Discos have not been captured by the power firms.
Speaking on the significance of electricity for all in a paper presented in Abuja, the Director-General, NNCSOs, Agbonkpolor Splendour, argued that it was not completely true that Nigerians hardly paid for the electricity they consumed.
He said, “Nigerians want to and are willing to pay for electricity, but the truth is that they can’t get it as expected. Also, it is important to state that the government should be making money from electricity, not just the power firms.
“But how can this be without proper enumeration of power users across the country? This is why we are calling for increased power consumers’ enumeration by the distribution companies. This is very important and should be taken seriously.”
According to him, until Nigeria gets the power sector right, nothing will be right.
“As a matter of fact, electricity is the main power for the future. Therefore, there is nothing that we wish for or desire as a nation that will be achieved in continuous darkness,” Splendour added.
He said that the Niger Delta Power Holding Company Limited was set up as a fast-track power sector infrastructure company, adding that despite the feat achieved by the firm, Nigeria’s electricity industry was still far from the desired target. Splendour said, “The NDPHC has a mandate to manage the power projects under the National Integrated Power Projects scheme of the three tiers of government. This in our view is an emergency intervention scheme to tackle the deficit and expand power sector across Nigeria.
“The agency has a key mandate to develop 10 power plants with a designed capacity of over 5,067 megawatts among other critical projects. Eight of the 10 power plants in the NIPP portfolio that are to support commercial operations have been inaugurated and connected to the national grid.”
