The Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC) on Tuesday disclosed that customers in Kwara are owing over N50 billion in outstanding electricity bills.
Busolami Tunwase, the company’s media relations lead, who stated this while addressing journalists during a stakeholder meeting in Ilorin, said that the management of IBEDC last month warned its clients to pay their outstanding debt so that the company can meet its obligations to the market operator (MO) and other parties in the electricity supply industry.
It could be recalled that the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) on March 30, said defaulting electricity distribution companies (DisCos) were given a 60-day grace period (until next week) to fulfil their obligations.
Speaking on the issue, Tunwase said the market operator was planning to disconnect IBEDC’s feeders from the national grid due to poor remittances.
Tunwase, while giving a breakdown of the company’s revenue loss, said electricity consumers in Jebba were at the top of the list with an outstanding of N25.8 billion, followed by those in the Baboko district with N18.9 billion debt, and those in the Challenge district with a debt of about N7.4 billion.
Tunwase added that regretted the huge debt profile, which is hindering the company’s fulfilment to its obligations to market operator.
“But I can assure that when payments are made, service will definitely improve,” she said.
She, however, urged Kwara residents to settle their outstanding debt so that the IBEDC management could effectively serve them.
The DisCo’s media relation lead advised electricity consumers who intend to procure new prepaid meters to shun third parties so as not to be defrauded.
“IBEDC will soon be flooding the market with new meters,” Tunwase said.
In his remarks, Gabriel Eze, IBEDC’s regional manager, also lamented that the huge part of the outstanding debt was from government ministries, departments, and agencies, as well as the “Nigeria air force (NAF), navy, and army”.