- Saturday, May 4, 2024
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The Managing Director/CEO, Jos
Electricity Distribution Company (JEDC) Plc, Abdul Bello Muhammed has said the
company has lost over 50 per cent of its revenue to energy theft and vandalism
Muhammed said the activities of
vandals across its franchise comprising Plateau, Benue, Bauchi and Gombe is
frustrating JED Plc’s revenue drive as well as hampering repayment of the loan
and JED Plc’s ability to meet its market obligations.
The chief executive stated this
in his welcome address at the official launch of special investigation and
prosecuting task force of energy theft and related offences held at Eliel Event
Center, Rayfield, Jos.
The launch was in collaboration
between the Federal Ministry of Justice and Jos Electricity Distribution Plc to
constitute a joint task force called the Special Investigation and Prosecution
Taskforce on Electricity Offences (SIPTEO) to prosecute all electricity offenders
involved in acts in such as vandalism, energy theft, meter bypass, hooking, tapping
and all electricity offences.
He said: "In 2020 alone, JED
Plc invested a total of N5,248, 597, 728.24 in the acquisition and delivery of
single and three phase meters to its teeming customers under the National Mass
Metering Programme (NMMP) Phase 0.
"It is instructive to point
out that this huge metering investment under the NMMP Phase 0 was a facility,
and investors’ hard-earned money. The principal sum and the interest of the
loan are to be settled from (monthly) payments for energy by customers.
"It is, however, heart-breaking
to note that rather than buy electric units for their meters, customers
massively by-pass these meters and steal energy (through internal manipulation
of meters or hooking), thereby frustrating JED Plc’s revenue pursuit, as well
as hampering repayment of the loan and
JED Plc’s ability to meet its market obligations.
"It may interest you to know
that, given JED Plc’s metering penetration, with about 240,000 customers on prepaid meters ( representing 35per
cent of the entire customer base of the Company), JED Plc’s expected monthly
revenues from these metered customers alone should be about N2.5 billion.
Unfortunately, that is not the case, as only N1.4 billion trickles in monthly
from these prepaid customers; the rest (representing more than 50per cent of
expected prepaid collections) is lost to energy theft.
"These investments were
intended to improve reliability and safety of services to our esteemed
customers. It is worthy of note that the investment sum was also a facility,
repayable from the monthly revenues of the Company, and investors’ monies.
'It is a pity to state, however,
that these assets have come under relentless waves of attacks by vandals,
notwithstanding their beneficial impacts on communities.
"This year alone, the company
has expended between N400 million—N500 million in fixing and replacing DTs that
have been vandalized. This is clearly a double jeopardy for the Company: whilst
the Company’s revenue is being massively depleted by vandalism and energy
theft; the little that trickles in is expended on repair and replacement of
assets wrecked by vandals.
"What JED Plc is suffering
at the hands of these vandals and energy thieves is, no doubt, a serious
going-concern threat: The company revenues are fast shrinking, and its losses
(that is Aggregate Technical, Commercial & Collection losses) are on a
worrying increase, as vandals and energy thieves intensify their activities on
a daily basis.
"The cumulative consequence
of this is that funds that would have
been well spent on expanding JED Plc’s network to unserved areas, and on
improving service delivery to customers are lost to energy theft, and spent on
fixing and replacing damaged DTs and lines,” he said, adding that with the
launch of this task force today, there is hope that “our revenue will be protected
hence forth”.
In his remarks, Chairman Board of
Director of JEDC Plc, Alhaji Adamu Wakil said the event is milestone in the
protection of investment in the sector.
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