The 11 Electricity Distribution Companies (Discos) in Nigeria have responded to allegations that they, “manufacture” figures in a bid to bill customers who are still operating on the estimated billing platform.

Many Nigerians have been kicking against the estimated billing system, insisting that the distribution companies do not rely on any logic before sending “crazy bills” to their homes.

But coming under their umbrella body, the Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED), the Discos insisted that estimated billing was scientific, maintaining that a system approved by the industry regulator, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Agency (NERC) cannot be illegal.

The Executive Director for Research and Advocacy, ANED, Sunday Oduntan, explained in a statement at the weekend, that contrary to misinformation concerning the nature and purpose of revenue targets Discos give their staff, such targets were usually set based on what customers consumed.

The Discos argued that the allegation that marketers were given revenue targets in their quest to meet targets which supposedly lead to extortion of customers, giving them bills that do not reflect their electricity consumption, was not correct.

Nothing can be further from the truth. What is being discussed here are what should be rightly termed “receivables”. We are talking about money owed to the Discos for a service already rendered.

This is money earned by the Disco based on the energy consumed. If this is what is being wrongly and ignorantly defined as cooked up figures, then it is our responsibility to help save the public from those spreading this misinformation.

“Any organisation that is performance-driven ties staff activities and its operations as a whole to targets. It is part of the model of any good organisation. Discos set commercial, operations, technical and even customer service targets for their staff. The commercial targets in our case are specific and based on what has been consumed.

Setting target does not mean conjuring figures to meet those targets. We go out to collect what is owed. That is legitimate,

the Discos maintained.

According to them, distribution transformers are metered, which aid in knowing the value of electricity that passes through the transformer to the customers in an area. “It is empirical,” it argued.

According to the power distributors, when the amount collected from the users of electricity connected to a transformer against how much has been paid are matched, it is always easy to know where there is a gap.

We are simply saying people should pay us what they owe and our people are given the data on what is being owed and by whom.

Discos do not arbitrarily make up billing figures. Where the customer or group of customers do not have pre-paid metres, there is an approved methodology for the computation of estimated bills, designed by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), which the Discos follow,

ANED stated.

The system, Oduntan said, ensures that the amount of energy consumed through a particular distribution transformer is paid for by those who utilise the said transformer.

Estimated billing is scientific and Nigeria is not the only country that practices it. In addition, customers are also allowed to contest their billing. We don’t just bill people to get money,

he added.

The NERC’s methodology for estimated billing regulations 2012, Oduntan noted, was specifically introduced in 2012 to ensure energy consumed is paid for and also to ensure Discos do not issue to electricity customers arbitrary electricity bills which did not reflect their actual power consumption.

This has been further regulated through the capping of estimated billing order 2020,

he added.
Oduntan further addressed the complaints by customers of bribe-seeking by Discos’ staff in the course of providing services for customers.

He stressed that the policies of the Discos remain the same with any legal entity doing business in Nigeria, which do not condone corruption.

The ANED spokesman requested any customer who requires a legitimate service and is asked to pay a bribe to promptly report such incident as well as the staff in question through the Discos’ customer service platforms and the regulator’s complaint channels.

Also, sometimes, it is those who induce them that are the same people who come and complain about them. We need Nigerians to help us fish out the bad eggs in our system. If you see something, say something.

Like every other business, the possibility of the presence of bad eggs who will want to exploit hapless customers will always be there. The information you provide to us will help in a very significant measure to curb the activities of such elements,

he stated.

Justin Nwosu

Justin Nwosu is the founder and publisher of Flavision. His core interest is in writing unbiased news about Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. He’s a strong adherent of investigative journalism, with a bent on exposing corruption, abuse of power and societal ills.