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China-Africa Trade Information Service
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China-Africa Trade Information Service
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Nearly five years after its privatisation, the Nigerian nation’s power sector still remains many problems.
Electricity consumers have expressed disappointment as nine of the 11 power distribution companies in the country have not supplied meters to more than half of their customers.
The total power generation has been hovering around 3,000 megawatts in recent months on the back of gas constraints, transmission line and distribution network limitations and water management issues, leaving at least 3,000MW idle.
A new report by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission obtained by our correspondent on Saturday showed that out of the 8,135,730 registered electricity customers, only 3,434,003 (about 42 per cent) had been metered as of the end of the first quarter of this year.
“The data is disappointing; we are moving at a snail’s pace. We have the capacity to meet up the requirement if we are conscious to do what is right. Looking at those who have actually applied to have meters, more than 50 per cent of those who need meters and who have applied for them are unmetered, then we cannot actually say that we are making progress,” the President, Electricity Consumers Association of Nigeria, Mr Chijioke James, told our correspondent.
“Not until every customer that is eligible to have a meter is actually metered, then as far as we are concerned, they (electricity distribution firms) are not doing anything. A lot of people are on estimated billing and corruption is still there,” he added.
There is an urgent need for Nigerian power firms to put heads together in the sector and come up with a solution to this market shortfall situation.
