Tariff increment war looms
Why Discos are reluctant on prepaid meters
BY KENNETH EZE
Several consumers of electricity are moaning that the pain points government thought to ameliorate by reforming the sector are mutating because the private companies now in charge seem bent on exploiting the situation.
Some consumers who spoke to The Point, expressed despair over how public power is being treated as if it should be a thing for the privileged few, with those employed by the distribution companies now devising means of ‘trapping consumers’, in the bid to generate more funds.
Some of their notable pain points range from poor power supply, irrational or crazy billing, estimated billing, poor work ethics/attitude of Discos’ employees, and incessant increment of rates or bills.
Consumers are also accusing the companies of ‘influencing’ the regulator, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, to support the frequent increment of tariffs.
The All Electricity Consumer Protection Forum, in a petition dated August 30, 2021, addressed to the Chairman, NERC, asserted that “your organisation has approved increase in tariff for all distribution companies, effective September 1, 2021.”
The National Coordinator, AECPF, Adeola Samuel-Ilori, who signed the petition, warned the NERC that any attempt to connive with the distribution companies to inflict more economic miseries on consumers would be met with stiff resistance.
In the petition, titled ‘Increase in Electricity Tariff as Allegedly Approved by your Office,’ the AECPF alleged that the last increase was in November 2020 under the guise of “service based tariff,” which it described as a “systemic fraud,” on which the court of law would arbitrate.
The AECPF stated that it had challenged some of the infractions in the Lagos judicial division in “suit number ID/4878GCM/2021,” against the Discos.
It also warned that “We will not fold our hands while your organisation inflicts more economic woes on helpless consumers in the name of tariff increase.”
It stated that the pressure group would monitor consumer bills from the due date to guide its action.
“We will monitor the consumers’ bill(s) in October to know the unit price charged by all Discos as it is customary of your agency to play hide and seek attitude in a situation like this and later necodemously approve their activities,” the pressure group warned.
It cited instances in the past where the NERC coluded the distribution companies against electricity consumers.
However, from the tales of woe from consumers who spoke to The Point, it appeared that the Discos had gone ahead with the implementation of the increment.
In a telephone interview with The Point, the National Coordinator, AECPF, Adeola-Ilori confirmed that the NERC had been served with the petition but had yet to react to it.
He said that the NERC by attempting to approve an increment was going against its own written policy where it stipulated three conditions precedent to any upward review of tariffs, prominent among which are efficiency and all customers must be metered.
Repeatedly efforts to get the position of the NERC proved abortive, as its General Manager, Public Affairs, Usman Abba Arabi could not be reached on phone, as at press time.
Consumers’ mutating pain points, lamentations
The Point’s opinion sampling of some consumers in the Ikeja, Lagos axis shows that most of them have been left frustrated by numerous public power supply related issues.
Several households in and around Ikeja, Ogba, Agege, Alausa, Anifowoshe, Shogunle, Shangisha and Maryland, are groaning under the burden irrational or crazy bills, (for postpaid meters), poor power supply, huge debit opening balance (for new prepaid meters), and estimated or outrageous bills for those yet to be metered at all.
A consumer, resident at Shangisha, Isioma Ogadi, decried what she described as “IKEDC’s cockiness in dealing with customers. How does one explain having to pay more than one’s house rent for public power supply, which is not even being supplied consistently,” she retorted?
Her family has made the painful decision to be disconnected from the national grid to avoid further embarrassment.
Attempting to recount the nightmarish experience of her family in the hands of IKEDC’s officials, she said, “Our ordeal started because we asked for proper treatment from our landlord, who uses one of the six flats in the house my family stays in.
“The landlord had just one meter for all the flats and was managing the bills selfishly. He would apportion the bills among the other five flats and add ‘management fee’ to it.”
The decision of the tenants to draw the landlord’s attention to what they considered an anomaly has now left them, yes, all five tenants counting their losses.
When the landlord stood his ground that the tenants should be shielding him from electricity bills, one of the tenants sold the idea of metering each flat individually to the others.
That was how the marketer for IKEDC got involved.
“The young man advised us to apply for a meter, per flat, with a promise to help us fast-track the release of prepaid meters from his office,” she added.
They have now realised that he was just leading them on, as “the moment we made written applications, they quickly disconnected us from the single meter serving the whole house, and left us to chase them for solution.”
The five families who in protest of footing electricity bills for their landlord applied for disconnection were dazed when it took over a month for a temporary relief, in the form of their being reconnected without any meter at all.
“The shock,” “Ogadi said”, was when we discovered that each flat was served a monthly bill of between N120, 000.00 and N145, 000.00, the least of which was higher than what we used to apportion among ourselves, as a block of six flats. The highest bill the six flats ever got was N48, 000.00.”
Their protests saw the power supply cut off, to be restored on the condition that they begin to settle the bills gradually, starting from a monthly portion of N45, 000.00 per flat. And while they remained cut off, IKEDC would continue adding monthly estimated bills to the outstanding.
“The landlord is now having a good laugh, while we are living in apprehension. What IKEDC has done is to recommend an upward review of our rents. If occupants of two-bedroom flats cough out over a million naira as annual electricity bills, while paying between N550,000.00 and N750,00.00 as annual rents, the landlord’s reaction would not be that hard to imagine,” she moaned.
While Ogadi and several others in similar situations across the country are saddened by their plight, the few lucky to have gotten the prepaid meters are thanking their stars.
Another consumer, Uzonna Ononye, took to his Facebook page to celebrate being set at liberty from the Disco, particularly the marketer.
He wrote, “I have now used prepaid meter for one year and I know the difference, and understand why the Discos are foot-dragging on metering every electricity consumer.”
A joyful Ononye stated, “From an average of N35, 000.00 monthly bill to less than N4, 000.00 monthly consumption. No business with the marketer and her ‘pole climbing,’ assistants. The difference is so huge.”
He opined that with prepaid billing the mooted increment might not be as contentious as being imagined, though power supply remained poor.
“Yes, power supply may not have significantly improved but I am not feeling robbed by the crazy bill. I believe that the increase in tariff will not be badly felt if everyone paid for what they consumed,” he added.
Almost 30 of his friends joined the conversation, majority taking sides with him. Many opined that the Discos were deliberate in restricting the distribution of prepaid meters to preserve their source of extorting the public through crazy bills.
Ifeanyi Excel Nwokemodo, in his comment on the post, stated, “The difference is not just clear but extraordinarily clear. I am a happy man now. At a time, I told the marketer to disconnect my wire because of the crazy bill. I feel for those that are being given estimated bills.”
Another person who commented, Alli Abiodun Olalekan, took a swipe at Ikeja Electric, which he described as an organisation not keen at providing services to customers.
“Ikeja Electric in particular is an evil organisation. They don’t care about providing service to their customers. They will never allow prepaid metering to work. They make more money from postpaid billings, hence, they will never advise due diligence before meter is installed,” he said, among other things.
“Consumers are miffed that the Discos are reluctantly yielding to public complaints by installing prepaid meters across the country, in a self-serving manner”
Mike Nliam shared his experience on the trail. While very pleased to be free from postpaid meter, he lamented that it cost him N150, 000.00 to acquire a prepaid meter, yet the EKDC loaded it with the outstanding balance on the crazy bills on his home before the prepaid meter was installed.
“The difference is clear. My securing a prepaid meter cost me about N150, 000.00 but my monthly bill came down from about N35, 000.00 to N8, 000.00. And I no longer have business with pole climbing and wire cutting EKDC officials,” Nliam said.
Some of the regrets being shared by electricity consumers were Discos’ insistence on passing the outstanding crazy bills to the prepaid meters.
Nliam caught it succinctly, “I didn’t add that every time I recharge, half of the money is used to offset the huge accumulated debts as a result of crazily high estimated bills accrued before my prepaid meter arrived. EKDC insisted that I keep paying until the debt is cleared or I won’t be able to top up,” with the simple implication of my resistance, being plunged into darkness.
So, while the AECPF, Ogadi, Olalekan, Nliam and their likes are deploring numerous pain points from the Discos exemplified by IKEDC and EKDC, Ononye would be satisfied with paying for what he consumed though power supply be irregular.
Consumers are miffed that the Discos are reluctantly yielding to public complaints by installing prepaid meters across the country, in a self-serving manner.
However, Abiola-Ilori pointed out that “estimated bills had been outlawed.” The onus was on the NERC, where a compliance department existed but they “would not do anything about” the enforcement of the policies issued by the regulator.
Hence, the Nigerian Electricity Management Services Agency charged people to ensure that all the meters being installed in their homes or public places were in line with the approved metering code.
The Managing Director and Chief Electrical Inspector of the Federation, Peter Ewesor, gave the charge at a seminar put together by the Bureau of Public Service Reforms, in Abuja.
He urged customers to reject meters that are not duly tested and certified by MEMSA.
Ewesor said,”I think a lot needs to be passed across to Nigerians, especially knowing their rights when it comes to metering. People should know that electricity meters are to measure power that is delivered and consumed.
”Any meter they bring into your premises, if you do not see NEMSA label, then that meter has not been tested by NEMSA in line with the law and therefore, it is not supposed to be installed or used.
He warned that those who failed to double check might “end up paying for what you did not consume in terms of estimated billing.”
