By Ferdy Agu
NRECA International of the United States, which operates in countries 43 countries aross the globe, has trained 35 Nigerians to work with Aba Power Limited, Nigeria’s newest power distribution firm, to enumerate electricity consumers in nine out of the 17 local government areas (LGAs) in Abia State where it has been providing electricity since last February.
This fact was made known today in a statement by the managing director of the utility firm, Patrick Umeh, a former Commissioner with the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), who also disclosed that the enumeration will start on Tuesday, December 6.
It is understood that the enumerators, who will go from house to house for four months, include computer scientists, statisticians, geographers and related professionals using the Global Positioning System (GPS) technology to conduct the exercise.
Umeh, a former executive of the Los Angeles Water and Power Company in California in the United States, said that the enumeration became necessary because “Aba Power is embarking on a major network expansion to enable it to provide not only 24-hour service from year to year to all consumers but also quality power to make manufacturers in Aba and environs become more competitive”.
Among other benefits, the enumeration will help the company to determine transformers and other electricity distribution infrastructure which are already overloaded or may be overburdened soon.
“We are using the GPS to identify the location of each structure and the consumers there, and provide each a unique identification number which will be used to deal with any problem from each structure”, Umeh explained.
He disclosed that some electricity consumers are exploited by their landlords and even co-tenants through non-provision of separate meters.
“These consumers pay electricity bills to the landlords and fellow tenants, as the case may be, but the latter pocket the money, making the helpless paying-consumers suffer unfairly when they are cut off from power supply for nonpayment”, he observed.
“The consumer survey will open the way for Aba Power to offer each consumer a separate meter, in an effort to end the current exploitation”.
The Aba Power boss disclosed that some places within the company’s coverage are still without electricity.
“This is unacceptable in the 21st century as Nigeria is in a hurry to develop rapidly”, he declared
“This gap and others have to be closed immediately”.
Source GMTNews
