Oscarline Onwuemenyi
05 July 2016, Sweetcrude, Abuja – The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola, has directed the Nigerian Electricity Management Services (NEMSA), Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trader, (NBET), and the Market Operator/Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN/ MO) to implement a ranking criteria in order to assess the safety and payment performance of electricity distribution companies (Discos) operating in Nigeria.
This latest directive arose from key issues that were thrown up at the monthly meetings of stakeholders in the power sector at, the latest for the month of June, which held at Shiroro Hydroelectric Plant, in Niger State.
The minister’s concern is sequel to the rising spate of electrocutions cases, especially as recently reported on locations in Eko and Abuja Discos, although the families were compensated in record time.
He opined that they should embark on system upgrade to reduce or totally eliminate this hazard, thereby reducing the incidence of electrocution and other related accidents.
The report compiled for the month of May shows that Port Harcourt Disco ranks first in safety compliance, the ministry said in a statement to our correspondent.
In order to assist Discos with their infrastructure upgrade plans, Fashola directed them to take ownership of abandoned transformers and sub- stations in their domain.
This, he assured, will help them to energize their networks, thereby increasing availability of power supply to households.
“Owing to obvious constraints, the ranking for payment performance will commence in June, hence the full ranking for metering loss reduction and service delivery will be made public in July, 2016,” the ministry further explained.
It would be recalled that the minister, on assumption of duty, instituted the regular/ monthly operators in the electricity industry’s meeting, premised on a hands on approach to identifying.
This is the sixth time in a roll for such an exercise to be carried out since the commencement of the monthly performance audit of the sector, and the next one has been slated for July 11, 2016, at the Benin Distribution Company in Benin City.
