The federal Government has said that Electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos) are to be held accountable henceforth for poor power supply that has hit the country in the last one month as minister of power, Adebayo Adelabu threatened to revoke licence of airing DisCos. The Minister after summoning DisCos for a meeting in Abuja on Tuesday threatens that his office is determined to revoke licence of any underperforming company.
Adelabu said, “Moving forward, I’m committed to holding all distribution companies accountable for their performance.
“Wilful non-performance will not be tolerated, and severe consequences, including licence revocation, may be imposed,” the minister said.
Accordingly, the Minister had on Tuesday summoned the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC), the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC) and the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) for an emergency meeting.
There has been an outcry by Nigerians over a sharp decline in the supply of electricity in the last three months especially in the last one month.
Vigil360 learned that many factors were identified as being responsible for the decline of the power supply which include; lack of adequate gas supply, grid breakdown, low supply from Generating Companies (GenCos), the inability of DisCos to wheel supply from GenCos and sabotage, have been adduced for the constant outage.
The minister also expressed concern over the poor performance of the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI).
Adelabu, lamenting on his official verified twitter handle reiterated the reasons for summoning the AEDC and IBEDC chief executives and the TCN Managing Director.
He revealed that his zeal for identifying workable solution for the power supply was the more reason why his office had to invite such stakeholders for an emergency meeting.
He explained, it was “Disheartening” the decline in power supply despite the concerted efforts to improve the situation.
He noted that his Ministry has been exerting pressure on the GenCos to enhance their performance, resulting in a recent increase in generation to over 4000MW.
“Despite this progress”, the minister said, “certain distribution companies are failing to adequately distribute the power supplied by TCN, while vandalism of power infrastructure exacerbates the problem in regions such as Abuja, Benin, Port Harcourt, and Ibadan.
“The purpose of this meeting is to discuss the worsening power supply in their respective regions and to collectively find lasting solutions.”
In his threat message, the Minister said, “Wilful non-performance will not be tolerated, and severe consequences, including license revocation, may be imposed.
“Additionally, I have instructed TCN to prioritise repair works on damaged transmission towers and power lines to improve supply in affected regions.”
The Minister spoke of plans to settle outstanding debts to power generation and gas supply companies, which will alleviate the financial strain and contribute to improved generation levels nationwide.
Pleading with consumers for understanding, he explained that he and his team had been making frantic efforts to tackle the challenges.
“I urge electricity consumers to remain patient as we work tirelessly to address these issues and provide better service to all Nigerians,” he said.
The Nation learnt last night that the payment of $120 million out of the $1.3 trillion owed to the gas suppliers has unsettled the GenCos.
The GenCos are said to be meeting to press for the payment of their outstanding debts.
Recall vigil360 reports that the federal government offsets $120million payment to gas suppliers last two weeks.
GenCos also revealed that they are also pressing the federal government to pay them as well their outstanding money to enable them operates seamlessly.
