“N50billion Capital Expenditure Inadequate to Improve Supply” – Electricity Distributors

The Association of Electricity Distributors, ANED, has stated that the, CAPEX, allowed for electricity distribution companies (DISCOs) yearly  was inadequate to meet the expected improvement in the nation’s power sector.

Executive Director, Sunday Olurotimi Oduntan, who stated this at a press conference in Lagos, advocated the need to exempt the Credit Advance Payment for Metering Implementation (CAPMI) from the limit placed on CAPEX, even as he expressed displeasure over the huge gap in the nation’s power sector funding over the years.

He said: “According to the power sector privatisation agreement, all the DISCOs can only invest an average of N50 billion in a year because of the present tariff structure,” he stated.

“But if the CAPMI is exempted from the CAPEX limit, our members can channel their investment into metering all the customers without affecting other intended investment in infrastructural development to boost power supply across their networks,” Oduntan added.

Chief Executive Officer, Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC), Mrs Funke Osibodu, stated that DISCOs take the blame for every problem in the power sector because they directly interface with the power consumers.

“We don’t have control over generation and transmission. We are like collection agents for the entire power industry. Across the financial value chain in the Nigeria Electricity Supply Industry (NESI), we get just 25 per cent of the total collections,” she explained.

“Once we collect the billing from the customers, the generation companies (GENCOS) get 60 per cent, Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) gets 11 per cent… We are directed to meter all our customers within one year, but we are constrained by the limit of CAPEX that we can invest.