Ibadan Disco Denies Non-Remittance to N BET, Trains 170 Commercial Line Workers

The Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company has denied that it was one of the electricity distribution companies that did not remit payment in respect of the bulk energy invoice presented by the Nigeria Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET) for the month of January 2018. The is coming as the electricity distribution firm, in partnership with Power Africa, a United States government-led initiative coordinated by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), has completed a three- day intensive training of over 170 commercial line workers. The trained workers also include: team leads and managers, who were trained on the maintenance of the company’s network and facilities, detection of Illegal connections to the company’s network, discovering meter by-pass and tampering, as well as energy theft.

The company explained in a statement at the weekend that an energy invoice for the previous month usually comes towards the end of the following month.

According to the statement, the January 2018 bill was received towards the end of February 2018.

The company added that it has remained consistent in its remittance to NBET, stressing that it paid the said January 2018 invoice precisely on February 8, 2018. In another development, IBEDC has also stated that as a responsible organisation that is committed to fulfilling its obligations to all stakeholders, it has completed a three-day intensive training of over 170 Commercial line workers, team leads and managers, in partnership with Power Africa, a United States governmentled initiative coordinated by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

The workers were trained on maintenance of the company’s network and facilities, detection of Illegal connections to the company’s network, discovering meter by-pass and tampering, and energy theft.

The exercise, which was held at Green Legacy Resort of Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, Abeokuta includes training from facilitators from Power Africa, TetraTech and IBEDC. The Managing Director of IBEDC Mr. John Donnachie in his brief remark at the ceremony noted that the company over the years had been recording huge revenue losses due to illegal connections, non-settlement of bills by customers.

According to him, the company’s Customer Relationship officers had to resort to begging customers to make payment for services rendered.

He noted that quality service could only be provided if the company’s customers are fulfilling their obligations, stressing that it is only through prompt and full of settlement of monthly electricity bills that IBEDC can break even and provide quality service. He added that only 46 per cent of the customers respond to monthly bills through persuasion, while many are involved in illegal connections, by-passing and tampering of meters, emphasizing that we have huge legal issues on these issues, but we are committed to a fact that customers get value for our services.