Estimated billing: The nightmare of Nigeria’s electricity consumers
…Battle before new NERC boss
By Simon Echewofun Sunday (Abuja), Habibu Umar Aminu (Katsina), Christiana T. Alabi (Kaduna), Mohammed Shosanya (Lagos), Lami Sadiq (Jos), Hassan Ibrahim (Lafia), Abubakar Auwal (Sokoto), Hamisu Kabir Matazu (Damaturu) and Halima Musa (Kano)
Auwal Adamu lives in a one-room self-contained apartment in Dawaki Extension, a 20-minute drive from Abuja city centre. Until recently, the marketing agent had only the poor state of road in his neighbourhood to worry about. But from February this year, electricity bills became his major headache. His house does not have a meter, leaving him at the mercy of officials of the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) to work out how much he pays every month, based on their calculations of his consumption.
Until January, for instance, he was being charged N5,000 a month, but in February, the rate was hiked to over N7,000. “I was truly baffled because that was a month we experienced a horrible power supply. So I expected that the rational thing to do was to review the bill downward,” he said.
When he contested the bill at the electricity company’s office in his neighbourhood, he was told that the only solution to his case was prepaid meter, which he must buy.
“An argument ensued between me and the female staff, who insisted I would pay for the meter. I challenged her, pointing out that her position contradicted the regulation of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), that meter is free. “Surprisingly, she said what I considered irrelevant. According to her, ‘You voted for change and you are now complaining about exorbitant bill,’ he said.
Not satisfied, Adamu took his case to the company’s branch office at Katampe. There too, he got nearly the same answer. ‘If the NERC has said meters are free, that is for the NERC, not me. My company did not say so. If you want a meter, go and get a bank draft for it,’ a female customer care officer told him.
“Around that period, I was sent on a marketing trip to the NorthEast, and by the time I came back, another bill of over N8,000 had arrived. If I had a meter, I wouldn’t have consumed even N500 because I travelled immediately after paying the one for February, which means there was zero consumption throughout the period of my absence,” he added.
Adamu is only one among many Nigerians on the estimated billing system by electricity distributors. The NERC directed all electricity distributors in the country to provide meters to all the unmetered electricity consumers so as to effectively end the regime of the indiscriminate billing of customers. Months after the deadline passed, nothing significant appears to have been done, as many Nigerians still complain of being exploited.
Daily Trust on Sunday learnt that the amount being charged unmetered customers is very high because of the power sharing formula employed for determining their level of consumption. “If, for instance, 10,000 megawatts are allocated to an area and we discover at the end of the month that 2, 000megawatts were consumed by metered customers, the balance of 8, 000 megawatts will be billed to the unmetered customers because it is assumed that they used them,” one of the distribution officers said.
Metering statistics released by the NERC in April 2016 revealed that there were over six million electricity customers with verified accounts throughout the country. While 3.1 million of them had meters, the other 2.9m did not have; hence they are placed on the estimated billing methodology.
By October 2016, the figure of metered customers had increased to 3.329m.
But residents argued that estimated billing only served the revenue drive of the power providers.
Describing the formula as unfair and exploitative, the president of the Nigerian Consumer Protection Network, a consumer advocacy group, Kunle Olubiyo, a lawyer, said the methodology remained a kind of incentive for the beneficiaries (DisCos) not to invest in the network or metering.
Consumers also frowned at the DisCos asking them to pay for the meters, after which they will be given units for the amount paid. Information showed that most of the 200,000 meters installed last year were done through the Credited Advanced Payment for Metering Initiative (CAPMI). The scheme allowed customers to pay for meters and have them installed within 60 days, with a refund after three years. The NERC suspended CAPMI by November 2016, saying DisCos were not investing in metering enough but over relying on customers to do that. Checks, however, showed that DisCos still impose the CAPMI on customers.
But Olubiyo also accused the distributors of installing meters that had been adjusted to shortchange consumers. “There are liquidity challenges and we have observed that some meters the DisCos have deployed are allegedly configured to over-speed. The Nigerian Electricity Services Management Agency Describing the formula as unfair and exploitative, the president of the Nigerian Consumer Protection Network, a consumer advocacy group, Kunle Olubiyo, a lawyer, said the methodology remained a kind of incentive for the beneficiaries (DisCos) not to invest in the network or metering (NEMSA) has complained severally that the DisCos are not subjecting the meters to test, which would have checked the abnormalities.
“We are in a serious dilemma as far as that is concerned. For estimated billing, it is inhuman, unjustifiable and unimaginable, and electricity consumers nationwide are at the receiving end,” he said.
He said the Mercado Consultancy mid-term assessment report indicated that the DisCos, before privatisation, were making 70 per cent profit from collection of revenue, but now it is reversed to 30 per cent.
“With the new board at the NERC, we are expecting that they would put their feet on the ground and do the needful,” he said, expressing high hopes.
Responding on the issue of blackout and load shedding in the DisCos franchise area, the spokesman, Mr. Ahmed Shekarau, confirmed that power supply had improved recently.
He said, “The load allocation oscillates, depending on generation level, which has been going up and down. But to respond directly to your question, I want to say: Yes, our allocation improved recently.”
The managing director of the AEDC, Ernest Mupwaya, an engineer, who addressed issues of high estimated billing and load shedding while commissioning a service centre in Kabusa area of Abuja recently, said, “I assure customers that there is a concerted effort to have incremental power. If we are allocated more energy, the issues of load shedding will start reducing.”
As an intervention effort to reduce complaints of high estimated billing, Mupwaya said the AEDC had started installing ‘transformer meters,’ beginning from Kabusa community in Abuja. He explained that the AEDC staff members and the community leaders would then read the energy consumption figure before preparing the bills for customers in the area.
Katsina
Energy consumers in Katsina have different tales over the ongoing estimated billing and absence of prepaid meters.
Haruna Bishir, a resident of Kankia town, was shocked when a bill of N10,000 was sent to him recently as energy bill for his twobedroom apartment.
He said his previous charges were between N3,000 and N4,000, and after enquiring from the staff of the distribution company, he was told: “Just pay, the bill came like that.”
He wondered how the charges shot up, saying that March’s bill was generating serious ill feelings in the town.
“They have refused to install prepaid meters for us, yet we are made to pay for the power we didn’t get,” he added.
Mohammed Yusuf, a resident of Nwala community in the metropolis, was among the few that got meters installed in their homes last month. He said the meter had revealed how he was being ripped off by electricity suppliers.
“My previous bills were a little above N8,000 monthly despite the poor power supply, but with the meter now, I hardly consume up to N2,000 monthly,” he said.
At Sabon Unguwa, Lawal Saidu said he was alarmed when his wife brought a bill of N12,000. Frustrated, he asked her to tell the bill collectors to disconnect him.
“How can you just sit in your office and estimate what I consume and bill me? That is a clear case of injustice,” he said.
All efforts to speak with officials in Katsina office of the distribution company proved abortive as they asked our correspondent to channel