By Obas Esiedesa/Abuja
Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has issued a 14-day
ultimatum to electricity distribution companies (DISCOs) that are in violation
of its order to submit a list of all customers who paid for meters since January
2011, and begin metering them with immediate effect.
It would be recalled that in 2011, “a N2.9 billion metering intervention fund
was made available to the companies with a view to closing the unacceptable
metering gap. One year after, the companies made no appreciable progress, and
this compelled NERC to demand for performance reports from the DISCOs.
“Eight of the 12 DISCOs submitted reports that fell far short of the
requirements of NERC. The rest did not submit any report of how they spent the
money”, NERC added.
A statement by the commission at the weekend warned that any DISCO that fails
to comply with this new directive would be barred from collecting the new
electricity tariff.
NERC in a letter dated July 19, to the DISCOs “expressed its utter dismay
that all DISCOs have been in complete violation of the order as it relates to
customers who have made payments within the given time frame, and have not been
identified for immediate metering.
“NERC views this conduct as totally unresponsive, and undermining the effort
of the reform,” Chairman of the commission, Dr. Sam Amadi stated.
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