The House of Representatives has assured that it will leave no stone unturned to pass the legislation that will check the activities of electricity thieves in the country.
Chairman of the House Committee on Privatisation and Commercialisation, Hon. Hamisu Chidari Ibrahim who made this pledge said his committee has resolved to work with relevant committees in the House to pass the electricity theft Bill.
Speaking when he led other members of the committee on an oversight visit to the Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC) in Lagos recently, the Chairman decried the rate of electricity theft in the country and said the legislation would check the abuse.
He called for collaboration between the committee and electricity distribution companies for effective and efficient power supply in the country. He noted that such collaborative efforts would give the committee the opportunity to know the challenges facing the power companies with a view to providing legislative solutions.
He commended EKEDC for attaining and maintaining the best rated status amongst power distribution companies in the country and urged its management and staff to uphold the status. According to him, the visit was in line with the legislative functions of the committee to oversee all privatised and concessioned enterprises by the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE).
He said the committee and the power companies would work closely to fight electricity theft by unpatriotic consumers and that the House had already passed a motion for the quick recovery of debts owed to power companies by Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
Also, speaking, a member of the committee, Hon. Decour Damnemunene expressed concern over the categorisation of various customers in Band A, which has resulted in most electricity consumers not paying for the electricity they consume.
Welcoming the members, the acting Managing Director of EKEDC, Mrs. R. Momoh gave a brilliant scorecard of the company and noted that the company is the only Disco in the country that has reduced its ATC&C Losses Ratio to the barest minimum despite the challenges in the power sector.
She said EKEDC had reduced the ATC&C Losses Ratio from 35 per cent in 2023 to 15.1 per cent in 2024 and that the company has over 700,000 of its customers metered.
She added that the Disco was working out modalities in collaboration with federal government Distribution Sector Recovery Program (DISREP) to procure an additional 92,000 meters for its customers.
The Disco boss stated that EKEDC had made significant improvements in technology, provision of meters and transformers even as she revealed that “EKEDC is the only Disco that fulfils its monthly remittance obligations to the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading (NBET) Company”.
She said the company was owed N144 billion by MDAs in its area of operation and that the Nigerian Military, the Nigerian Police Force and other state government agencies have refused to pay up their debts, thus posing a challenge for the Disco.