*The Nigerian Senate.
Oscarline Onwuemenyi
19 October 2016, Sweetcrude, Abuja – The Senate Committee on Power, Steel Development and Metallurgy has ordered Electricity Distribution Companies (Discos) and generating companies (Gencos) in Nigeria to submit their equipment for examination by the Nigeria Electricity Management Services Agency (NEMSA).
The order was the fallout of a complaint by NEMSA to the Senate Committee on Power when it paid the agency an oversight visit that stakeholders in the power sector go against its laws arbitrarily.
The committee Chairman, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, while giving the order said NEMSA must ensure that stakeholders obey the law regulating their activities.
He said, “What we are saying today is that there are gaps between what NEMSA is supposed to be doing and what the Discos are actually doing. From what we can see it is actually because they are not seeing NEMSA as an enforcement agency that it actually is.”
Abaribe also told the agency to ensure compulsory testing of all electricity equipment before they are certified for installation in any part of Nigeria.
He also told the 11 electricity distribution companies in Nigeria to ensure strict compliance with the laws setting up NEMSA. The law makes it compulsory for meters and electricity equipment brought into the country to be tested before they used.
Abaribe added, “The task that we are giving to NEMSA today is that they should use their law the way that it has been ratified and signed by the President of Nigeria so that they would actually hold the Discos accountable for their deeds in the power sector. That is a very big task which we want NEMSA to enforce strictly.”
In his response, NEMSA’s Managing Director, Mr. Peter Ewesor, said the agency was upgrading its meter test stations in the outstations, assuring that it would ensure standardisation of electricity equipment.
He also said the agency was working hand in hand with the Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON) towards ensuring that all power equipment brought into the country are of quality standard and not prone to causing disastrous electricity accidents for both staff of electricity firms and ordinary Nigerians.
