Ayodeji Obisanya, the chairman National Union of Electricity Employee (NUEE), has waded into the accusations by the National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) that the Distribution Companies (DISCO), overbilled about 7.1 million customers in the past year.
Reacting to the issue of DisCos overbilling their customers, Obisanya told Techeconomy that distribution transformers that supply every house is metered.
He further stressed that “what people called over billing is estimated bill, given to customer without meter but the distribution transformers that supply every house is metered after reduction of the people that were metered, the remaining go too on metered customer “.
The NUEE chairman was however quick to point at government and regulatory bottleneck as the major challenges of the industry.
He made this known to our correspondent in an exclusive interview yesterday (Monday) when airing his view on the over 7 million unmetered customers said to have been overbilled by the Distribution Companies of Nigeria. (Disco).
Earlier in the week, the power distribution companies were said to have overbilled about 7.1 million unmetered electricity consumers between January and September 2023, this was revealed through an analysis of the latest monthly number of overbilled customers.
In the various Regulatory Interventions for Non-Compliance with the Order on Capping of Estimated Billing to Unmetered Customers, issued to the 11 Discos by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, an agency of the Federal Government, establishing that the power distributors raked over N105bn as a result of over-billing.
Accordingly, the figures computed indicated that Yola Disco overbilled about 42,902 customers to the tune of N541.9m during the review period, while Abuja Disco overbilled 1,823,218 customers by N17.9bn.
Ayodeji, however, noted that there are a lot of bottled necks, especially from the government, regulator, and the meter provider, whilst pointing also to the challenges related to the exchange rate which he dated to last year.
“There’s a lot of bottled necks especially from government and our regulator to meter provider in actual were not meter provider, there different companies that provide meter if those company did not meet specifications it become our problem, were not meter provider.
It is important to note that the report further indicated that Benin Disco overbilled 754,849 customers an underestimated billing by N10.5bn, as Enugu Disco overbilled a total of 1,011,402 customers to the tune of N11.9bn during the nine-month period.
Again, Eko Disco overbilled 371,828 customers under the estimated billing category between January and June 2023, as July, August, and September were not captured in the report released by NERC. It overbilled these customers to the tune of N14.13bn.
While Ibadan Disco made N333.68m from the overbilling of 143,465 customers underestimated billing between January and September last year, but Jos Disco overbilled 1,264,537 customers to the tune of N13.3bn.
Furthermore, Ikeja Disco overbilled 934,438 customers by N20.9bn, as Kaduna raked in N1.14bn from the overbilling of 126,071 power users under its franchise area during the review period.
Kano Discos overbilled 71,120 customers by N196.97m during the nine months, but Port Harcourt Disco overbilled 605,621 customers to the tune of N14.2bn between January and June, as the number of overbilled customers in July, August, and September were not captured.
It was however reported on Saturday last week, that the power sector regulator declared that it would deduct N10,505,286,072 from the annual allowed revenues of the 11 power distribution companies during the next tariff review as part of sanctions over their non-compliance with the capping of estimated bills for unmetered customers.
While explaining the intricacies in the power sector, he noted that Distribution Companies cannot be blamed for the infraction, but the industry regulators.
He acknowledged the fact that “the meter provider sends payment receipt directly to customers but the application comes through disco.
According to him, “Discos are not meter providers, all the bottlenecks come true to our regulator”.
“That’s why they cannot hold Disco responsible, it is government action. Again no manufacturer provides locally they import finished goods why only three assemble in Nigeria. The meter provider wanted to increase the base on the dollar rate because it’s imported but the regulator said no, who’s the problem?” he queried.
He also noted that “the rating of the meter was from xx2 to xx4 which our regulator compelled those to change from 2 to 4 most of them have a lot of xx2 imported with them as we speak but they cannot install, If it’s direct from the disco we hold them responsible”.
