The perennial problems that befall power sector in Nigeria is too bogus and becoming alarming due to some facts that are listed below:
It doesn’t sound well for power to be bulkily generated as it is now because the transmission lines that are supposed to wheel the energy to the respective distribution companies are aged and not enough to transmit the total generated energy from the Gencos to the Discos.
Our country is fast developing and with this, I believe the generation of electricity can be decentralized state by state in order to produce the required electricity needed by each state. This method will also help in industrialization of the states and it is also a way to create jobs for the citizenry.
The major problem of the present power sector situation is the regulator Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission NERC. This organization has done nothing to assist an average user of electricity in Nigeria. Discos violate NERC orders and mandates at will thereby leaving an average Nigerian at the mercy of the Distribution companies.
An example is a situation where NERC will be the organization announcing serial increment in meter cost in the new Meter Asset Provider metering programme to Nigerians. This action is questionable as we all know that Department of Petroleum Resources is not the institution saddled with the responsibility to set the price of fuel dispensers but they only regulate the sales of petroleum products, so are other regulators in the country like NCC, NBC, and CBN, etc.
NERC needs to explain to Nigerians why metering market should not be opened according to various Discos metering specification to all interested players who have the capacity whereby electricity consumers will go to the vendor’s stores to purchase the meter of their choice. This will promote competition among the players and it will automatically bring down the price of the meters rather than push Nigerians back to the Discos for metering. The Discos are only ready to promote estimated billing.
NERC’s order on CAPPING of estimated billing failed from inception as the level of compliance is very poor and electricity consumers have not seen any effect of the order. We have a lot of proofs for this.
Recently, if not for the intervention of the National Assembly, electricity tariff would have been increased astronomically despite the poor services and COVID 19 while NERC was silent on what is supposed to be its main responsibility.
We wish to appeal to Nigerian government to please look into these aforementioned, dissolve the clueless regulator and appoint people that can foster good, transparent, appropriate and robust regulations in the sector.
Akinbodunse Shadrack is of Utilities Consumers Rights Initiative of Nigeria based in Ibadan. He can be reached on: 08035625982.
