Make electricity affordable, accessible, reliable – FCCPC tells DisCos

The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), says electricity charges and services should be affordable, accessible and reliable for consumers.

Mr Tunji Bello, the Executive Vice Chairman of the FCCPC, said this at a stakeholders meeting on Electric Meter Issues in Abuja on Tuesday.

He said that many challenges being faced by electricity consumers in the sector were human-made.

Bello said the challenges stemmed from systemic inefficiencies and a troubling culture of impunity among certain service providers.

The executive vice chairman said that going forward, regulatory breaches in the industry would be met with immediate corrective action.

He said that complaints had revealed that consumers were often forced to pay upfront for meters without reimbursement, contrary to established guidelines under the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) Meter Asset Provider and National Mass Metering Regulations 2021.

Bello said the NERC and NMMR guidelines had stipulated reimbursement through energy credits.

He expressed regret that customers with faulty meters were randomly placed on estimated billing by some DisCos, a practice he said was clearly prohibited by NERC.

According to him, the disregard for robust regulatory frameworks, such as the NERC Meter Asset Provider and National Mass Metering Regulations 2021 and the Customer Protection Regulations 2023, by DisCos is unacceptable and will no longer be tolerated.

”From our analysis of consumer complaints, it is clear that electricity consumers routinely endure problems related to billing, metering, transformers, connections, disconnections, and customer service, among others.

”While it is recognised that Nigeria faces power shortages, these shortages cannot justify systemic abuses against consumers.

”Going forward, regulatory breaches in the industry will be met with immediate corrective action,” he said.

On the recent announcement by a DisCo concerning the phase-out of the Unistar prepaid meter model, Bello said it posed another challenge for consumers, who may face undue hardship if the transition was mishandled.

He said the meeting would clarify the phase-out process and advise DisCos to bear the replacement costs for their meters without imposing additional charges on consumers.

”The Commission is committed to enforcing strict adherence to regulatory guidelines, ensuring that consumers are neither unfairly charged nor randomly subjected to estimated billing.”

Zubair Babatunde, the Head, Consumer Enlightenment Department of NERC, said the replacement of obsolete Meyers had been a problem in the sector.

Babatunde said the essence of meter replacement was to ensure revenue assurance, to see that the meters were smart and could record consumption rate to ensure that DisCos did not loose their investments.

He said that NERC had in 2021 released a clear guideline on ways to replace obsolete meters.

”The regulation did not say you have to force a customer to pay for a new meter because the meter is obsolete,” he said

Mr Okeme Obiabo, an Assistant Manager at the Nigerian Electricity Management Services Agency (NEMSA) said there were procedures to the replacement of obsolete meters.

Obiabo said that from past experiences of the agency, DisCos usually took responsibility for the replacement of obsolete meters and not customers.

Some representative of various DisCos said that customers’ satisfaction was a major concern in their operations.

Mr Collins Igwe from Benin DisCo, said the company took its customers complaints seriously with a view to addressing them.

Mrs Catherine Ezeafulukwe, the Chief Customer Experience Officer of Eko DisCo, said that metering was a way to go for transparency in the electricity sector.

”Customer means a lot to our business so metering our customers will ensure a win-win situation for us and our customers,” she said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that other DisCos were also present at the meeting.