KEDCO bemoans huge debt by electricity consumers

The Kano Electricity Distribution Company (KEDCO) said rogue electricity consumers in Jigawa, Kano and Katsina are owing it N20billion, in unpaid bills since 2013.

Dr Mahmud Abubakar, Team Leader, Strategy Group, KEDCO, disclosed this in Katsina on Thursday while presenting a paper at a “Public Consultation on Extraordinary Tariff Review of the Multi-year Order”.

He said only an average of 170, 000 out of 470, 000 of its customers pay their monthly electricity bills in the three states under its coverage.

He said that the Federal Government had set aside N600 billion for January 2019, to March 2020, as subsidy on power.

“The intervention is a fiscal burden on Nigeria’s treasury that is not sustainable,” he said.

According to him, the tariff support would be eliminated gradually by the end of 2021.

He disclosed that the National Electricity Regulation Company (NERC) mandated DisCos to prepare a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP), which KEDCO had submitted already.

Abubakar also said that under the PIP, KEDCO requested for an extraordinary tariff review.

He said some of the challenges facing the company include inability of the customers to settle their monthly bills and vandalization of facilities.

He said that KEDCO had introduced whistleblower policy, to reward anyone who informed the company about theft of electricity, meter bypass and vandalization of the company’s facilities.

The stakeholders in attendance urged the DisCos to improve the power supply before increasing their tariff.