.Firm requires N100bn to provide meters
Ejiofor Alike
The House of Representatives Committee on Power has charged the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC) to sustain a better customer relationship in its franchise areas.
This is coming as the company has stated that it would require N100 billion to provide meters to all categories of customers.
Addressing journalists at the end of a two-day oversight visit of the company, the Chairman of the Committee, Hon. Daniel Asuquo said a better customer relationship would help to achieve the country’s target and goal of power development.
The other members of the committee that accompanied Asuquo during the visit, include the committee’s deputy chairman, Hon. Mohammed GarbaGololo, Hon. Mark GbillaTerseer, Agibe Christopher Ngoro, Bala Hassan Abubakar, Sani Umar Bala, and Sunday Adepoju.
Others were Hon. AminuAshiru Mani, ObinnaOnwubariri Kingsley, Gogo Bright Tamuno, Mohammed Musa Soba and SaheedFijabi.
Asuquo said the committee came on oversight function following a quarterly report submitted by the National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).
According to him, the aim was also to interact with IBEDC customers face -to- face in its bid to get better services to Nigeria.
Earlier on arrival at the IBEDC headquarters in Ibadan, the committee members visited the IT and customers care centre to ascertain the modalities put in place by the service provider to offer optimum service to their customers.
They also interacted with the Asset and Customer Enumeration team whilst commending IBEDC for taking the critical step to commence enumeration.
On the second day, the committee members for over three hours at the function hall of Jogor Centre, Ibadan, listened to feedback and complaints of customers across the coverage areas of IBEDC the service provider.
Speaking further, Asuquo stated that the committee had visited eight distribution centres.
“Nigerians are eager and hungry to have stable electricity because power is a critical indices to development. So, we are here to do our oversight function on the request of NERC, according to their quarterly report submitted to the House on the overall activities of the Commission,†Asuquo said.
“Today, we got commitment from the management of IBEDC and with our interaction, the service provider has assured us on their readiness to resolve some of the issues raised here today, especially ones that have been there for a very long time. We are fulfilled that the House of Representatives have come down here to solve some of the problems.
We have created a better relationship between the service providers and the customers and have also done what is expected of us as representatives of the people,†Asuquo added.
Addressing the committee chairman and members, the Managing Director of IBEDC, Mr. John Donnachie identified the high rate of illegal connection among its customers, vandalism and liquidity issues as the greatest challenge facing the company.
“I would need N100 billion to fix metering problem in IBEDC. We will also need thousands of transformers today if we want to fix all request on transformer problems,†Donnachie added.
