FG to fix capital base for Discos

By Adewale Sanyaolu

The Federal Government yesterday disclosed plans to set capital base for Electricity Distribution Companies (Discos)

Minister of Power, Mr. Adebayo Adelabu, stated this during a visit to the Corporate Headquarters of Ikeja Electric in Lagos, yesterday.

Adelabu frowned at a situation whereby Discos were only interested in revenue generation to the detriment of infrastructure upgrade.

He explained that most Discos have failed in the area of infrastructure upgrade to the detriment of consumers who most time are left in darkness.

To achieve the capital base requirement, he said the Federal Government would get legislative backing to achieve the initiative

He said the Ministry would do all it can to ensure that Discos up there game through massive investment and if that fails it would resort to legal backing

Adelabu added that all hands must be on Deck among all operators within the power sector value chain.

He said it remained worrisome that the country with an installed capacity of 13,000MW was generating a paltry 5,000MW.

The Minister said the Federal Government going forward will change the strategy from top to bottom approach to bottom to top.

‘’Going forward, efforts will now be concentrated on development and infrastructure upgrade from Discos to Gencos and then transmission.

If we get it right at the DisCo level, then we are most certain that we are almost getting there,’’.

‘’The meeting is planned, not accidental. You have made landmark achievements in the last 10 years.

You have done well in relation to other DisCos. We can just shake your hands and leave, but they say the biggest room is the room for improvement.

You are a model DisCo, the biggest in terms of revenue collection.

I don’t know the one that is bigger between you and Ibadan DisCo in terms of industrial clusters because I am aware there are a lot of industries within your catchment areas.

I believe that this is the time for all of us to wake up and do things well for the country.

Though I am bothered about what is happening but I am not discouraged. This is the time that you (Discos) should work hard with us to get desired improvements in power supply to people and businesses,’’.

He urged the DisCos to work closely with the Federal Government to expedite national development through a sustainable power sector for reliable and cost-effective sustainable power supply.

Earlier in her address, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Ikeja Electric,Mrs.Folake Soetan, while reeling out some of the giant strides recorded by the company said the total CAPEX in 2015 was N5 billion but has grown to N50.58 billion in 2023.

She added that average revenue collection in 2015 was N3.75 billion and grown to N18.22 billion as at 2023.

On metering, she said 30,000 meters were deployed to consumers as at 2015, a figure which has hit 800,000 as at 2023.

Soetan lamented that revenue collection in the industry is largely hampered by the huge metering gap and non-payment of bills.

She worried that meter bypass and energy theft has contributed immensely to the loses recorded by Discos.

The Ikeja Electric boss said power generating capacity was still significantly lower than the demand for electricity which she said has resulted in frequent power outages and load shedding