Chineme Okafor in Abuja
The Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED) – the umbrella trade association of 10 electricity distribution companies (Discos) in Nigeria – has said its members earned N466 billion in nine months.
The period under review was between October 2018 and June 2019.
ANED in a statement from its Director of Research and Advocacy, Mr. Sunday Oduntan, stated that the earned revenue was N43 billion more than the N423 billion they jointly recorded between October 2017 and September 2018.
It noted that the Discos also reduced their Aggregate Technical, Commercial and Collection (ATC&C) losses to 45 per cent, adding that their capacity to collect money for energy supplied to customers rose to 67 per cent.
“From October 2018 to June 2019, the 10 Discos raised their energy revenue collection to N466bn. This was higher than the N423 billion they collected from their customers between October 2017 and September 2018 when the collection efficiency was 65 per cent.
“This is a reflection of Discos’ commitment to reduce losses, even within the context of the financial crisis of the power sector,” the statement added.
It explained that by increasing their revenue collections by N43 billion within the stated period, their operational improvement rate was by over 10 per cent, while billing efficiency also improved by five per cent.
In an analysis of their Key Performance Indicators (KPI) report the Discos submitted to the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), it stated that the Discos reduced their ATC&C losses by 3.6 per cent within one year and that ATC&C level was 49 per cent in 2018 but now down to 45 per cent in 2019.
“The reduction is even more significant, relative to a starting point of 54 per cent, at handover, and within the context of liquidity challenges and lack of access to capital for investment,” it explained.
On the energy delivered to the Discos, ANED stated that customers were billed for 20,600 gigawatts hour (GWH) of energy from 2017 to 2018, amounting to N650 billion, of which N423 billion was collected.
However, for the period of 2018 through 2019, it noted that the Discos recorded huge improvement in billings. According to it 21,650GWH of energy totaling N693 billion was billed to customer and N466 billion was collected.
