House Decries Extortive Practice of Estimated Billings By Discos

•Urges FG to provide first responder services to road accidents victims on highways

Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja

The House of Representatives has called on the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to compel electricity distribution companies (Discos) to discontinue the extortive practice of estimated or arbitrary billing of customers with immediate effect.

It also directed the Discos to put in place an effective metering plan, which assures consumers of fair billing.

The House also directed NERC to invoke relevant provisions of the law and other extant agreements to penalise Discos from exploiting and abusing the rights of consumers.

The resolution of the House followed the adoption of a motion moved at the plenary yesterday, by Hon. Afuapi Moruf.

 Moving the motion, the lawmaker said the Electricity Act, 2023, prescribes a comprehensive and institutional framework to guide the operation of a privatised, contract, and rule-based electricity market, within the ambit of which every participant in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) must operate;

 He said NERC as the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) regulator, has among other obligations to ensure adequate supply of electricity to consumers, ensure that prices charged are fair to consumers, though sufficient to allow the finances of Disco’s activities, as well as enable them to make a reasonable profit for efficient operation;

 Moruf, explained that the Discos were entities established by the Electric Power Sector Reform Act, 2005, to supply electricity to power consumers with obligations to the respective “Operational Areas”;   He noted that the DisCos have the statutory duties to provide for power transmission facilities and other ancillary services to ensure reliability and support the transmission of electricity from generation sites to consumers;

The lawmaker added: “Concerned that the Distribution Companies raked in a whooping N247.33 billion in the first quarter of 2023 as against N232.32 billion generated in fourth quarter of 2022, representing a rise by 20.81 per cent compared to N204.74 billion generated first Quarter of 2022 (year-on-year consideration), whereas, electricity supply declined from 5,956 (Gwh) in first Quarter of 2022 to 5,852 (Gwh) first Quarter of 2023 (year-on-year consideration), despite the increase in earnings.”

Moruf lamented that the Discos have demonstrated unfaithfulness towards the social contract with Nigerians, as enshrined and enhanced by the transitional effect of the Electric Power Reform Act, 2005 to the Electricity Act, 2023, having been inefficient in their services, with condemnable attitudes towards expected investments.

Moruf decried that NERC watches the DisCos abdicate their responsibilities to communities, individuals, corporate bodies, and public institutions, no compensation mechanism has been evolved to ensure either an outright refund of these third party investments in the distribution network or a possible conversion of same to electricity credits for the use of these “investors”.

The House resolved: “Urge the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to: compel the Distribution Companies to discontinue the extortive practice of estimated or arbitrary billing, and with immediate effect, put in place an effective metering plan, which assures consumers of fair billing;

“Reprimand the Distribution Companies for the abysmal provisioning of services to Nigerian electricity consumers.”

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives has called on the federal government to train and deploy First Responders to all major highways in Nigeria.

The Green Chamber said this would help stabilise victims of road accidents before handing them over to the nearest healthcare institutions for further attention.

The resolution of the House was sequel to the adoption of a motion moved by Hon. Olamijuwonlo Alao-Akala at the plenary yesterday.

Moving the motion, the lawmaker explained that a first responder was a person with specialised training, who is amongst the first to arrive and provide assistance, pre-hospital care or incident resolution at the scene of an emergency to victims of an accident until they are handed over or delivered to a hospital.

Alao-Akala said first responders typically include law enforcement officers (in the instant case, commonly known as Federal Road Safety, Nigeria Police Force), paramedics, firefighters, and emergency medical technicians.

He noted that in some jurisdictions, such as the United States of America, emergency department personnel, such as doctors and nurses, are also required to respond to disasters and critical situations, designating them first responders.

He expressed concerned that innocent lives and dreams have been cut short on Nigeria highways, mostly as a result of the absence of or slow medical response to road accident victims.

To this end, the House urged, “the federal government to train and deploy first responders to all major highways in Nigeria to help stabilise victims of road accidents before handing them over to the nearest healthcare institutions for further attention.”

 It also urged the federal government to provide a toll-free line dedicated to the use of highways.