Lagos State government, through its Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, on Tuesday signed a Memoranda of Agreement with Ikeja Electric and Sahara Power Group to increase power supply and provide uninterrupted power to residents of the state.
The agreement will also include distribution of free prepaid meters to low income areas, with the pilot phase of 20,000 meters to be distributed in Alimosho Local Government area of the state.
The Commissioner for Energy and Mineral Resources, Olalere Odusote, said the aim of the agreement is to increase power supply to at least 22 hours daily, from about eight to 12 hours daily.
He noted that the implementation would start immediately, adding that Lagos State government has identified a number of feeders that can provide power in 20,000 low income areas with plans to replicate the initiative across the state.
Managing Director of Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company, Folake Soetan, expressed the firm’s readiness to support Lagos State government in ensuring uninterrupted power supply to residents of the state.
Also, the Managing Director of Sahara Power Group, Anthony Youdeowei, promised that his company will be transparent in its dealings with the Lagos State government and Ikeja Electric to provide power supply for Lagosians.
This move by the Lagos State government is commendable and coming at the right time, because every citizen needs electricity to survive.
Today, one of the major challenges troubling the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry is metering.
Despite several policies put in place by the government, from the National Prepaid Metering Programme to the Credited Advance Payment for Metering Initiative, most Nigerians have been condemned to estimated billing, which is believed to be a means by the electricity Distribution Companies to rip off customers.
Some customers have complained over time that the DisCos are foot-dragging on providing prepaid meters so as to continually fleece them through crazy bills that do not reflect what they consume.
On April 3, 2018, the National Electricity Regulatory Commission introduced the meter asset provider regulation to new investors to fast-track the rollout of meters through the engagement of third-party investors.
The DisCos were expected to engage the services of the Meter Asset Providers within 120 days from the effective date to achieve a three-year metering target prescribed by NERC.
Despite the late start over lack of cooperation by DisCos as regards engaging licensed firms, the meter asset firms were issued permits to begin the rollout of new meters by May 1, 2019. To boost the new policy, the federal government provided a N37 billion grant for the supply of the meters.
President Muhammadu Buhari also gave an order for nationwide metering of electricity consumers in a bid to check estimated billings.
Again, in October 2020, the federal government flagged off the National Mass Metering Programme to close the metering gap in the NESI by December 2021.
Speaking a week after the launch of the programme, Sale Mamman, the former minister of power, said there would be installation of at least one million meters for electricity consumers through the mass metering programme by December 2020.
Despite the policies and growing customers’ plight on metering, there seems to be no progress made in this regard as Nigerians continue to groan under the weight of crazy billing just to have electricity.
Customers are still lamenting the non-availability of meters. Some of those who have paid for prepaid meters for months, and some years back, are complaining that the product is not being supplied by the DisCos.
Electricity generation and distribution in Nigeria have remained plagued by high technical, operational and commercial inefficiencies.
Unfortunately, despite the plethora of interventions from several quarters, national and even international, there has yet to yield much benefits as the electricity sector is clearly enmeshed in avoidable chaos.
The decades of appalling performance of the NESI have left many Nigerians wondering if NESI could ever be remedied seeing that the role of NESI in the state of Nigeria’s economy cannot be overemphasized.
From the several households scattered across Nigeria, through the Small and Medium Enterprises to the large electricity consumer in the manufacturing sector, a turnaround of NESI will in no small measure positively impact the very fabric of Nigeria.
We would have expected that the advent of the Electric Power Sector Reform Act 2005 and the laudable innovations there under would usher in respite to Nigerians, but their hope has been dashed as the desired changes and impact have yet to materialize of the last 16 years.
“Despite the intervention by government and international organizations, the state of DisCos infrastructure remains a far-cry from the expected
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Nigeria’s power generation has continued to hover below 4,000mw despite a 13,000mw output capacity. The creaking grid has collapsed either partially or totally four times this year, largely due to dearth of spinning reserves, an excess capacity meant to compensate for shortages.
The net effect of this is that electricity supply is improving in areas where collections are growing.
In other areas, operators are not making investment to improve their network.
In some rural communities, power cuts last for months and even in major cities like Lagos, areas like Festac, Ajah, Ejigbo and others, are poorly served.
This paralyses economic activities in these areas.
Over the years, DisCos have continuously lamented over paucity of funds.
This is however at variance with their commitment to invest in the infrastructures most of which were weak and obsolete, overdue for overhaul and upgrade.
Despite the intervention by government and international organizations, the state of DisCos infrastructure remains a far-cry from the expected.
There is therefore urgent need to revalue the capital base of DisCos and increase same to achieve meaningful investment in their network.
This will largely address the sector liquidity issues.
Further unbundling of the current distribution sub-sector to one investor per state is another viable solution, because it has been canvased severally that the coverage areas for the DisCos are too large and would not make for their effectiveness hence, the need to further unbundle the distribution sub-sector of the value chain comprised of 11 DisCos into 36 DisCos.
This will ensure their effectiveness as well as monitoring.
It is clear, that, most of the 11 DisCos are biting more than they could chew.
