The Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) has pledged that the era of estimated bills to electricity consumers by the company would soon be over.

The Head Corporate Commission, AEDC, Mr Oyebode Fadipe, who made the pledged yesterday in Abuja at a civil society organisations (SCOs) roundtable, said the organisation would engage more meter access providers in the power sector to address the metering problem in the country.

Fadipe speaking at the roundtable on power, organised by the Civil Society Groups for Good Governance (CSGGG), described estimated billing also known as ‘crazy billing’ as the major challenge facing the power sector, and however, assured that the problem would soon be solved.

This is as the Convener, CSGGG, Mr Dominic Ogakwu, stressed need for accountability in the power sector.

“The principal cause or source of the crazy bill or outrageous billing is because a lot of customers have not been metered and that is the principal cause. Only very few are in the prepaid category. Those that have the post-paid meters are those who are complaining about crazy billings and overestimated billing,” Fadipe said.

Urging consumers on estimated billing to go through the complaint process to get them addressed, he said that the Meter Access Provider (MAP) currently in use and the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) policy was essential to neutralize the metering platform.

He said that it was no longer the Distribution companies (DISCOS) that had the monopoly of the metering of customers.

He said, “We have more players coming in and again the Discos have to be in agreement with the particular meter access provider. When a customer pays money over a time, the access provider recovers the money over that time. When the consumer comes to recharge and he or she is recharging about N10, 000 values, the consumer is given less than 10 thousand naira recharge in order to recover part of the cost.”

He said that the AEDC had invested about N10bn in 2018 for the production of over 200,000 pieces of meters of different categories of single faced and multiple faced meters.

The Deputy Director, Surveillance and Enforcement, Consumer Protection Council (CPC), Mr Sham Kolo, said the outrageous billing was worrisome, especially as the mandate of CPC was to promote and protect the interest of consumers.

Kolo said the council was working closely with the DISCOS to ensure that consumers were not short-changed in any way. (Daily Trust)

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