Olanrewaju Lawal, Birnin-Kebbi
Governor Abubakar Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi State has disclosed that the consumers of electricity in the state need to pay N900 million monthly to the Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company (KAEDCO) to continue enjoying 24 hours service.
Bagudu, who disclosed this during media chat with newsmen and management of TCN and KAEDCO, on Monday at government house, noted that on February, out of N900 million revenue allocated to Kebbi state (which used to be N300 million) Kaduna DisCo were able to collect N250 million from customers, leaving the balance of N650 million deficit.
Bagudu noted that, in order to help the companies, the state government always pay electricity bills of hospitals, schools, and courts saying that “the state has other challenges such as school feeding and others to take care of, we don’t money.”
The Governor, power transmission and distribution companies were reacting to the recent causes of power outage in the state.
“The system is the same, the power is available to buy and is still 24 hours. The problem now is that the power supply has improved significantly to other states. The TCN station is very hot because Kaduna DisCo did not buy power in stock at the station. The monthly bill used to be N300 million, but today the company is distributing power worth N900 monthly,” Governor Bagudu said.
The Governor noted that the main challenges were either the Kaduna DisCo should buy more power from TCN and continue running at a loss or consumers who were not paying should be disconnected, stressing that the company would start distribution of more meters to minimize deficit.
“The TCN has transmitted more power to Kaduna DisCo, Birnin-Kebbi, and what remained is for the Kaduna DisCo to buy and distribute to customers. But they have money to buy.”
Governor Bagudu also said that the recent commissioning of the Yauri station has not improved the revenue despite the state government usually paying between N100 million or N180 million monthly in advance to build up the lapses.
Governor Bagudu, who appealed to consumers to pay their bills promptly, added that they should realise that despite the efforts of the state government to ensure 24 hours power supply in the state, the TCN and Kaduna DisCo are not government companies and the government does not have enough money to pay the deficit in expected revenue from the state.
Earlier, Commissioner for Water Resources and Electricity Alhaji Nura Kangiwa disclosed that the state had spent N4 billion on repairing faulty transformers and collection of villages to national grid while 400 transformers were distributed.
Responding to questions, representative of Kaduna DisCo, Mr Halilu Bashar apologised to the people of Kebbi over the electricity outages in the state, promising to work with relevant stakeholders to improve on their services.