Job Osazuwa

With tens of millions of customers who use electricity in Nigeria not metered, dissenting voices are daily soaring and calling on the electricity distribution companies to accelerate measures to ensure that the issues of estimated bills end as soon as possible.

There is a hardly a day that passes without a protest in one part of the country or the other over allegations of overbilling, estimated billing and billing when there is total power outage all through the month (generally termed “crazy bills”).   

The need to place all customers on prepaid meters in order to get them to only pay for what they consume has been re-stated on different occasions across Nigeria. Many have argued that the only way to be fair to all consumers is to put in place a standard measurement to check what is consumed against what is billed.

It is undisputable that power supply is an indispensable amenity needed to speedily drive development in any country. It has been agreed by many investors that epileptic power supply remains one of the major problems that set Nigeria on a economic retrogression. Constant power supply has, for long, become an unattainable luxury in many homes and business premises.

In the public and private sectors, having relatively constant power entails a huge financial burden on the management. It affects the cost of production and, consequently, shifts the financial load to the final consumer. Sadly, many companies have collapsed because of high cost of production, while others have relocated their headquarters to other neighbouring countries. Many have continued to downsize to enable them remain afloat.

Due to irregular power supply and estimated billing, many companies, especially multinational organisations, have since lost faith in the distribution companies and have resigned to generating their own independent power.

Apart from business owners, residents also groan over exorbitant estimated bills. Even those using low-consumption appliances are said to pay the same bills as their neighbours who enjoy multiple and high-energy-consuming appliances. 

In FESTAC Town, Lagos, some residents have lamented that they pay as much as N27,000 monthly even with no tangible appliances in their apartments. As a result, they had demonstrated at different times at the Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company (IKEDC) office and called on the distribution companies to provide all the residents with pre-paid metres. 

In 2017, some resident associations of Agbelekale in Agbado Oke-Odo Local Council Development Area (LCDA) embarked on a “no pre-paid metres, no payment of estimated electricity bills” protest. It lasted for months, until the distribution company pleaded with them and assured them that it would do the needful within a short period. But residents were made to clear the bills covering the months they had protested. Those who refused paying were disconnected by the firm every month until they complied.

Estimated billing is a bitter pill that most electricity consumers have been forced to swallow for decades. Many Nigerians have considered the billing system as deliberate extortion by the power distribution companies.

In 2016, the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, while meeting  with Nigerian meter manufacturing companies, had said that he was determined to refocus attention on the need to rapidly roll out meters in order to ensure that distribution companies charge electricity consumers only for energy they consumed. But three years down the line, Nigerians are still lamenting over what they term a cruel and unjustifiable billing system.

Irked by the avalanche of protests, in 2018, the Majority Leader in the House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, sponsored a bill to criminalise estimated billing.

Gbajabiamila said there was nowhere in the world where electricity customers are billed arbitrarily as obtains in Nigeria.

Having received the news if the bill initiated by the House of Representatives, Nigerians threw their weight behind the bill, saying that it was long overdue. Their joy was understandable as it has been revealed by many business analysts that the bulk of profit business owners make is swallowed by providing power to run the companies.

One Nigerian who could not conceal his joy over the move was Mr. Miracle Uzor, who operates a barber’s shop in Lagos. He said the electricity distribution companies had for long exploited consumers and got away with it.

“These companies have been giving us outrageous bills despite the lack of electricity. There was a particular month they brought a bill of N19,000 for me, for operating this salon. I calculated the number of days they brought power that month, it would not be more than 12 days,” he said.

But the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) and all the Discos, under the aegis of the Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED), reportedly moved against the bill, saying it would negatively impact on the electricity situation in the country.

On his part, Fashola argued that the bill could destroy the entire power sector, adding that the financial challenges of metering must first be addressed. He stressed that even though the Discos had a contractual obligation to provide meters, it was not their core mandate.

The minister said: “I take it that we all know what is core mandate. Their core mandate is to supply energy. My view is that let new players be licensed to have the supply of meters as their core mandate to take the load off the Discos.”

Fashola noted that while criminalising estimated billing, it was also important to do same regarding energy theft and meter bypassing, “otherwise both must be addressed too by prescribing heavy penalties against offenders.”

But there seems to be a ray of hope for Nigerian electricity users now. The bill for an to amend the Electric Power Reform Act to prohibit and criminalise estimated billing by the electricity distribution companies has passed the third reading in the House of Representatives.

Related News

The House unanimously voted in favour of the bill when it was put to voice vote by the Deputy Speaker, Yusuf Lasun, at plenary recently.

Gbajabiamila said, just as Nigerians were often united when the Super Eagles are playing soccer, they are also united against estimated billing.

“Any regulation that allows estimation of bills when the actual consumption can be ascertained is against natural justice and equity and should not stand,” Gbajabiamila said.

He said the bill, when passed, would put an end to the estimated billing by the Discos, stressing that it would bring about a win-win situation for both the consumers and the companies.

“The bill will ensure that prepaid meters are installed in all houses, so long as the customers apply for the meters,” he said.

Mrs. Beatrice Eze, who operates a provision shop at Super Market in Agbado Oke-Odo LCDA, said: “They kept bringing bills of N13,000 per month for my small shop. Apart from two bulbs, there is one fridge and a standing fan in my shop. It is daylight robbery because, sometimes, I don’t make a profit of N13,000 in a month.

“On several instances, I paid heavily for services I didn’t get. Once you refuse to pay, the EKEDC would continue to pile up the bills and the officials will not forget to disconnect you from public power supply anytime,” she said.

There are also complaints that when repairs are going on and there is power outage for days or weeks, the days of total power outage are not subtracted from the month’s bill. The bill remains steady and residents’ complaints are often left unattended to.

In some areas, getting prepaid meters is determined by how connected one is to those in authority. To get a prepaid meter is said to cost between N25,000 and N35,000, depending on ones ability to negotiate or through whoever you are getting it.

After many months of total blackout in most parts of the major cities in Edo State, the Benin monarch, Oba Ewuare II, asked President Muhammadu Buhari not to renew the licence of the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) for its inability to provide electricity.

Ewuare II made the plea penultimate week when President Buhari paid him a courtesy visit at his palace in Benin City during his campaign tour of the state.

According to him: “Electricity supply is no doubt key to the development of any society. Unfortunately, over the years, the people of Edo State have experienced inadequate electricity supply by the Benin Electricity Distribution Company.

“In fact, during one of the meetings of the Edo State Council of Traditional Rulers and Chiefs, we issued a communiqué condemning the inefficient performance of BEDC, including its estimated billing method. We also called for the withdrawal of the operational license of BEDC,” said the Oba. 

On December 9, 2018, residents of Jakande Estate, Ejigbo, Lagos State, staged a peaceful protest against Ikeja Electric (IE) in the area over what they described as the high estimated billing the community had been getting.

They also claimed that the six-month period given to the company by the NERC to give over 3,000 customers prepaid meters had elapsed without the meters getting to them.

A leader of the Estate Youth Parliament, Yusuf Adeyemi, said the NERC had on May 24, 2018, ordered IE to metre every customer in the estate within six months, which elapsed on November 24.

He stated that the Disco, instead of heeding the order of the regulatory agency, wrote back to the community that it would not be able to meter the community until 2019.

In the letter, IE claimed that the inadequate power supply to the community was due to limited allocation from Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN). It also claimed that its unmetered customers were billed based on supply availability, in line with NERC’s approved estimated billing methodology.

However, the residents claimed that they were overbilled through the estimated billing system and they would not henceforth pay for electricity until they are given pre-paid meters. 

In a related development, residents of Yusuf Street in the Orile-Oshodi area of Lagos State have called on IE to restore their power after over three months of blackouts. 

It was gathered that some residents reportedly assaulted an IE official while he was trying to access a transformer on the street, which led to their being disconnected from the grid.