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From Olanrewaju Lawal, Birnin Kebbi
The Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company (KADCO) in Birnin Kebbi has attributed the recent erratic power supply to customers in Kebbi State to inability of customers to pay up their bills for the energy consumed.
Area Manager, Mr. Isiaq Gwamna, who stated this in his office,said the 33,32 megawatts earlier supplied to the state were dropped to 19 megawatts three days ago due to low income. He said in a month, customers in Kebbi State were expected to pay about N575 million. He noted, however, that in the past six months, the company had been getting an average of N195 million monthly from customers in the state in a month from them. Gwamna while responding, to questions, explained that, for the past six months there was no record that the state government was paying for customers in the state apart from MDAs and Government offices, contrary to the general impression in the state,.
“Since I came to Kebbi State, the state government has been consistent on the payments on their own energy consumption, not on customers. They are paying for their ministries, parastals and agencies, not for customers. Since I came here, Kebbi State government has not paid for other consumers,” he said.
He noted that KADCO as the private company who had invested heavily in the business, depended on the payment of the bills of the customers to survive in the enterprise, stressing that it is only when there are improvement in the revenue, bills payment that the company could generate more power supply to the consumers.
“As I mentioned earlier, Kebbi Central has been enjoying power supply before now and we should understand that this is purely business. And in every business, input will determine the output. We have a market obligation to meet. We are not getting this energy for free. Some people are doing the generation. Someone invested his money in this business and he is expecting the returns,” he said.
