AEDC Earmarks N10bn To Meter 222,000 Electricity Users

The Managing Director of Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC), Engr. Ernest Mupwaya, says the firm has earmarked N10 billion to provide 222,617 meters in order to reduce the estimated billing method.

Mupwaya said this, yesterday, in Nasarawa State during the North Central consumer interactive session organized by the House of Representatives ad hoc Committee on ‘Excessive electricity charges levied on consumers by distribution companies’ along with the AEDC.

He said, “We have consulted Meter Assets Providers (MAP) so we can have an enlarged distribution which will cost us about N10 billion for 222,617 aside from the N4.5 billion we have spent on 150,000 meters.”

He said AEDC has online platforms to address complaints of overbilling. “Also, all the challenges of poor electricity and estimated billing will be looked into and addressed accordingly,” Mupwaya added.

Customers at the session lamented cases of over-billing and poor power supply. A consumer from Kogi State, James Moyer, said although he gets poor power supply when he needed it for his ice block business, he still gets huge electricity bills.

Another customer, Bayo Ayodele, from Kugbo in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) lamented scarcity of transformers in the area and increased bills.

“In the flat we stay, some of us pay as high as N30,000 per month without consuming the required power which made some to pack out,” he added.

The chairman of the ad hoc committee, Hon. Ajibola Israel Famurewa, said it became necessary for the House of Representatives to carry out the interactive session across geopolitical zones due to the huge petitions on high billing and poor electricity supply.
He said that the recommendations of the committee would be submitted to the House for further action.