IBEDC Decries N28bn Debt Owed By Ogun Customers  

The Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC) has disclosed that customers in the Sango and Ota axis of Ogun state owed the company N28 billion. The Lead Media Relation, IBEDC, Mrs. Busolami Tunwase, stated this during a stakeholders’ meeting in Joju, Ota, Ogun state recently. Tunwase, who represented the Chief Executive Officer of IBEDC, Mr. Kingsley Achife, said the N28 billion electricity debt was owed by residential customers and not industries. “We are appealing to customers to urgently pay their bills for the company to survive and effectively carry out our business operations. The accumulation of debts is hampering the operations of the company because we have requests and obligations to fulfill.Not paying for electricity consumed is energy theft, which is punishable and attracts jail term,” she said. Tunwase said the new electricity bill signed into law by President Bola Tinubu gave room for punishment to anyone caught stealing electricity. She admonished customers to refrain from bypassing, illegally removing, or moving the meter to another location, damaging the meter to avoid paying the bill, illegal connections, among others. Tunwase noted that payments received provided the electricity value chain with the needed revenue to improve service. She advised them to desist from using substandard meters, which are prone to serious dangers to the people. Tunwase added that such erring customers with illegal meters should be reported to the appropriate channel as using illegal meters was an offence. She also warned customers against assaulting its officials in the course of discharging their duties to avoid the wrath of the law. A customer, Mr. Tunde Adeyemi, said there was a need for IBEDC to redouble its efforts to provide stable electricity for residents. Adeyemi lamented that the epileptic power supply in Sango and its environs was affecting the livelihoods of people negatively, adding that IBEDC also needed to address higher electricity bills to prevent shortchanging the public. Adeyemi also appealed to IBEDC to make pre-paid meters available to customers to enhance its operation.

DisCos Record 95.21% Market Remittance In Q2 2023 –NERC

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has stated that electricity distribution companies (DisCos) recorded 95.21 percent market remittances in the second quarter of 2023. This represents the highest remittance by the distribution companies so far. The Commission, in its just published ‘Electricity on Demand; report, on Tuesday, indicated that the combined upstream bill that DisCos were expected to pay totaled N194.69 billion, comprising N154.04 billion for generation costs from the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading (NBET) and N40.65 billion for transmission and administrative services facilitated by the Market Operator (MO). Out of this amount, the DisCos remitted a total of N185.36 billion (N152.48bn for NBET and N32.88bn for the MO), leaving an outstanding balance of N9.32 billion, representing a remittance performance of 95.21 per cent in Q2 2023 compared to the 67.43 per cent recorded in the previous quarter. Industry analysts believe that the improved remittance by the DisCos in the quarter indicates that they did better in fulfilling their financial obligations to NBET and MO, ensuring a higher percentage of payments made in relation to the total amount due. On revenue generation, the report indicated that the DisCos collected a total of N267 billion in revenue in Q2 2023 reflecting a collection efficiency of 75.54 per cent for the quarter out of the total billing value amounting to N354.61 billion. The Commission reported that the improved revenue generation capacity showed an improvement of 6.79 per cent when compared to the first quarter of 2023, when the collection efficiency stood at 68.75 per cent. The NERC linked the boost in collection efficiency to two main factors, namely the increased metering of consumers, which ensured a more accurate measurement of electricity consumption, as well as the DisCos’ sundry collection campaigns targeting pre-paid customers, which encouraged timely and complete remittances. The report further said that the ATC&C loss stood at 38.41 per cent and comprised technical and commercial losses of 18.47 per cent and collection losses of 24.46 per cent. Even then the ATC & C loss still reflected an improvement, as it decreased by 7.98 percentage points when compared to the 46.39 per cent loss recorded in Q1 2023.

DisCos raked in N247.33bn revenue in Q1 2023 -NBS

Data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has revealed that there was a slight increase in the number of total number of customers in the second quarter of 2023 with the number moving to 11.47 million from 11.27 million in the first quarter of 2023, indicting a 1.84 per cent increase. In its Nigeria Electricity Report Q2 2023: Energy Billed, Revenue Generated and Customers By DISCOS, the bureau stated that on a year-on-year basis, customer numbers in Q2 2023 rose by 6.17% from 10.81 million reported in Q2 2022. Similarly, metered customers stood at 5.47 million in Q2 2023, indicating a growth of 3.10% from 5.31 million recorded in the preceding quarter. “On a year-on-year basis, this grew by 10.40% from the figure reported in Q2 2022 which was 4.96 million. In addition, estimated customers during the quarter were 6.00 million, higher by 0.72% from 5.96 million in Q1 2023. “On a year-on-year basis, estimated customers increased by 2.58% in Q2 2023 from 5.85 million in Q2 2022,” it said. The coordinating agency for all statistics in Nigeria added that revenue collected by the DISCOs in Q2 was N263.08 billion from N247.33 billion in Q1 2023. “On a year-on-year basis, revenue generated in the reference period rose by 39.63% from N188.41 billion recorded in Q2 2022. “Electricity supply was 5,909.83 (Gwh) in Q2 2023 from 5,851.87 (Gwh) in the previous quarter. However, on a year-on-year basis, electricity supply increased by 13.06% compared to 5,226.97 (Gwh) reported in Q2 2022,” it said.