Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC) said it had installed prepaid meters for 321,306 customers out of 608,252 since 2013.

Mr Adeoye Fadeyibi, Managing Director, EKEDC, said this during an oversight visit of the Senate Committee on Privatisation to the company on Tuesday in Lagos.

The committee was led by its Chairman, Sen. Theodore Orji.

Fadeyibi said the figure represented 53 per cent of the DisCo’s customers, noting that about 78,000 customers had been metered under the ongoing National Mass Metering Programme of the Federal Government.

He thanked the government for the initiative of providing free prepaid meters to Nigerians, which he said had helped in bridging the metering gap in the country.

Fadeyibi said EKEDC had consistently led the distribution market by focusing on key initiatives and investing in state-of-the-art technology.

“EkEDC invested 13.7 million dollars in Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system for the purpose of Distribution Network Management.

“Subsequently, over 1.6 million dollars was spent on the impressive Geographical Information System (GIS) for realtime customer information and asset management.

“This project has since been applauded by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission for being the most accurate at over 90 per cent accuracy,” he said.

According to him, in the last five years, EKEDC has spent over 94 million dollars to replace and upgrade obsolete equipment such as power transformers, panels and breakers as well as refurbishing dilapidated Injection Substations.

Fadeyibi said the DisCo was envisaging an estimated cost investment of approximately 259 million dollars to upgrade its network going forward.

He said this would significantly reduce the frequency of interruptions due to technical faults, hence increasing average supply of energy to customers.

Fadeyibi said it would also reduce the average downtime during interruptions, significant reduction in Technical Losses and increased realtime monitoring of the network resulting in proactive responses to failures.

Earlier in his remarks, Orji noted that the privatisation of public entities was carried out by government following complaints of poor performances by Nigerians.

Mr. Fadeyii also used the opportunity to urge the National Assembly to intervene in the repayment of the N21 billion outstanding debt owed the DisCo by Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).

Fadeyibi said the MDAs were the biggest debtor to EKEDC till date.

He stressed that various efforts had been made for the repayment of the debt.

“It is our prayer to this committee to intervene on the repayment of this debt owed over the years by the MDAs,” he said.

According to him, the inability of the DisCo to collect the monies is impeding on its efforts to invest in infrastructure upgrade to improve power supply to customers under its network.

Fadeyibi also called for legislation against energy theft and establishment of electricity special courts to try offenders in the country.

“The biggest threat to our operations are vandals and customers who illegitimately connect to the lines causing revenue loss.

“Prosecution of these types of cases are often prolonged and difficult to conclude because of the technical expertise required by the bench,”he added.

Fadeyibi called for a framework to address illegal independent power producers and sanctioning of associated transactions.

Responding, Orji, said the visit of the committee was in line with its statutory responsibility to oversight privatised entities for better performances.

Orji noted that the debt being owed the DisCo by the MDAs was huge and also an impediment to its mandate of providing quality supply of electricity to its customers.

He said the way the National Assembly could intervene in the repayment was to approve monies for the specific purpose in the annual budget presented by the Executive.

“We believe that there is a need to repay this debt because EKEDC has thousands of Nigerians as employees and the company is providing a critical service which is electricity.

“We will also be looking at the issue of unauthorised persons carrying out electrical installation duties in the country because it is creating problems for the power sector.

“We want to commend the management of EKEDC for being resilient in the face of these challenges,” Orji said.