A consumer had told The DEFENDER in Lagos that in her bongallo of 10 rooms without much power consuming appliances and regular electricity supply, a single bill of N40,000 is given per month, wondering how DisCos will not eventually be disappointed when, naturally, “those billed beyond normal are not going to be able to pay.”
The electricity distribution companies in Nigeria (DisCos) said consumers paid N362bn out of the N520bn they were billed from January to September 2020.
This represents a loss of N158bn (30.38 percent) in the nine-month period, according to the Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED), the umbrella body for the 10 private DisCos.
The disclosure came as consumers in the country complain that the billing system of the DisCos (estimated and crazy in nature) makes payment to now stand at level above their ability.
A consumer had told The DEFENDER in Lagos that in her bongallo of 10 rooms without much power consuming appliances and regular electricity supply, a single bill of N40,000 is given per month, wondering how DisCos will not eventually be disappointed when, naturally, “those billed beyond normal are not going to be able to pay.”
According to the ANED, the quarterly performance report shows the DisCos’ revenue collection rose to N130bn in the third quarter of 2020 from N105bn in Q2 and N125bn in Q1.
ANED said the collection improved as a result of DisCos’ effort to recoup losses during the COVID-19 lockdown, although the energy received by them dropped by 4.3 per cent in Q3.
“The DisCos are back on track on their performance improvement after the fall due to the pandemic. Indeed, in September 2020, Discos collection reached a new record of N44.5bn,” it said.
ANED said the DisCos’ collection efficiency rose to 76.28 percent in Q3.
It however said, “Due to the severe impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, in particular during the Q2 2020, the ATC&C (Aggregate Technical, Commercial and Collection loss KPI (moving average) keeps increasing and is now at 46.1 percent.
“Paradoxically, the MYTO financial model that determines the tariff has not been adjusted and still considers average ATC&C losses of about 20 percent for this year.
“The huge gap between the reality and the fiction of the MYTO model is creating a huge shortfall and the real revenue collection is far from the minimum remittance obligations.”
