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By Nasir Kura
The Managing Director of Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) Mr. Usman Mohammed on Monday stressed the need for the Distribution Companies (DISCOs) to provide electricity metres for consumers as part of measures to solve the country’s power challenges.
Briefing State House correspondents in Abuja on the company’s 2018 scorecard, Mohammed said Nigerian consumers are ready to pay their electricity bills if only they are sure of the billing method.
He said the excuse of consumers being too poor to afford electricity tariffs does not really hold water, and this can be confirmed if they are provided with metres to save them from the widespread arbitrariness of estimated billing.
He said smaller and poorer countries like Burkina Faso have achieved as much as 98 percent electricity transmission because they have taken up the challenge of regulated and metered electricity supply to consumers.
He said such efficiency allows Burkina Faso to buy energy from neighbouring Cote D’Ivoire without debts.
The TCN boss said the country’s transmission capacity currently stands at 8,100 megawatts although only about 5,000 megawatts can be taken up by the DISCOs.
He assured electricity consumers that the TCN would continue to expand its capacity while the DISCOs strive to expand theirs in order to improve power supply in the country.
