The Regional Manager of the company, Engineer I. Ahmed Mohammed, who dropped this hint today at an interactive session with consumers in Kuje town, said that the company has been running at a great loss as a result of the accumulated debts.
Ahmed said that the owner of the company bought it from the government at the rate of $168 Million with a view to improve the electricity supply to the people, but regretted that instead of making profit, the company has been returning to banks to take loans for the purpose of remaining in business.
He recalled that before the company bought the electricity generation from government, Kuje had suffered months in darkness because of low level of generation and supply, adding that the situation had greatly improved with the coming of the company.
Ahmed regretted that despite the improvement in the supply, many residents have refused to pay their bills, stressing that electricity is no longer a social service but a conventional business where the owner would want to make profit to be able to pay the salaries of the staff.
This was even as the company’s Area Manager in Kuje, Hajiya Jummai S. Suleiman recalled that the highest energy delivered to Kuje in 2013 was 1,563,408KWH “but this has gradually increased to 4,263,959.4KWH as at November 2015.”
Hajiya Jumai added that Kuje and its environs have since been connected to the 330KV transmission line from Gwagwalada sub-station even as she said that so far the company has provided eleven new transformers both new and replaced ones in Kuje.
The Area Manager said that the highest billing before the relatively stable power supply situation was about N20 Million and a collection of about N9,600.000.
She said that the billing as at December 2015 was about N45 Million with the highest collection of N29 Million, saying: “what this statistic represents is that Kuje Area Office is running at a loss because we have not been able to collect our revenue. This explains why we have embarked on aggressive revenue drive.”
The Gomo of Kuje, Alhaji Tanko Jibril, who led a number of District heads and other traditional chiefs to the meeting, appealed to the electricity consumers to pay their bills as and when due to avoid a situation where the distribution company would cut them off.
Alhaji Jibril warned also that henceforth, any traditional ruler in whose territory electricity facilities are vandalized would be held responsible, even as he called on his subjects to desist from tampering with the facilities illegally. [myad]
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