Govt agencies, military owe DISCOs N93b

The Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED) has said that the distribution companies (DISCOs) are owed at least N93billion by government and security agencies.

Its Executive Director, Sunday Oduntan, a lawyer, said the sum is made up of N39.1billion owed before privatisation and N39.5billion after.

According to him, there is an outstanding interest of N15billion arising from unpaid energy bills by DISCOs due to non-settlement of utility bills.

Saying the proposed mass disconnection was justified, Oduntan said the DISCOs, for months, have been groaning under severe liquidity constraints.

He said Abuja DISCO is owed N18.6 billion; Eko, N8.6 billion; Kaduna, N8.2 billion; Enugu, N7.2 billion; Ibadan, N6.8 billion; Ikeja, N5.9 billion; Port Harcourt, N6.8 billion; Benin, N5.8 billion; Jos, N6.5 billion; Yola, N2.4 billion and Kano, N1.2 billion.

“Cash strapped and further squeezed of working capital by the resistance that greeted the new power tariff structure, the distribution companies’ predicament has been made more precarious by the refusal of these historic debtors, particularly the MDAs, to pay for power consumed,” Oduntan said.

He said ANED was working with the office of the Vice President to resolve the issue.

He said VP’s office came up with a new template in which all DISCOs would state what each agency, department, the Army, Air force, Navy, among others, owe.

He said as at last Friday, all DISCOs had submitted their claims using the template.

Oduntan said although his association believes in the government’s ability to resolve the issue, the DISCOs “are very serious about their threat to embark on mass disconnection of historic debtors in the days ahead if they refuse to honour their commitment.”

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