The management of the Benin Electricity Distribution Company Plc has blamed its consumers and vandals for the irregular power supply witnessed in the region.
The Head, Corporate Affairs, BEDC, Mr. Tayo Adekunle, explained that the first major issue facing the company was the low payment culture on the part of the customers, which had affected its revenue collection.
He said, “Lack of sufficient capital makes it difficult for us to execute plans we envisaged. What the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission approved for us as our capital is just N3.4 billion annually, and is not sufficient for us.”
On the aggrieved consumers that are bitter over ‘estimated billings’, he said, “As long as we sympathise with this category of our esteemed customers, we also need them to understand that ‘Estimated Billings’ is a way of ensuring power supplies are paid for, especially by consumers that do not have pre-paid meters.”
He added that when the new management took over the company, it met a bulk block of meters’ requests, which it had to clear first before it started implementing its finance-metering programme.
“The principle of estimated billings is based on the average forestall billing, which means that people of similar circumstance with a customer that has no meter will determine the bill of the customer in question,” he added.
