IBEDC laments, says Kwara customers owing over N50bn debt
The Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC) on Tuesday lamented the spate of unpaid electricity bills which is hindering the company from meeting its obligation to the market.
Addressing Journalists on Tuesday during a stakeholders meeting in Ilorin,Busolami Tunwase, the Company’s spokesperson disclosed that customers in Kwara are owing over N50 billion in outstanding electricity bills.
He stated that that the management of IBEDC had last month warned its clients to pay their outstanding debt so that the company can meet its obligations to the market operator (MO) and other parties in the electricity supply industry.
It could be recalled that the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) on March 30, said defaulting electricity distribution companies (DisCos) were given a 60-day grace period (until next week) to fulfil their obligations.
Tunwase said the market operator was planning to disconnect IBEDC’s feeders from the national grid due to poor remittances.
Giving a breakdown of the company’s revenue loss, he said electricity consumers in Jebba were at the top of the list with an outstanding of N25.8 billion, followed by those in the Baboko district with N18.9 billion debt, and those in the Challenge district with a debt of about N7.4 billion.
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“But I can assure that when payments are made, service will definitely improve,” she said.
She, however, urged Kwara residents to settle their outstanding debt so that the IBEDC management could effectively serve them.
The DisCo’s media relation lead advised electricity consumers who intend to procure new prepaid meters to shun third parties so as not to be defrauded.
“IBEDC will soon be flooding the market with new meters,” Tunwase said.
In his remarks, Gabriel Eze, IBEDC’s regional manager, also lamented that the huge part of the outstanding debt was from government ministries, departments, and agencies, as well as the “Nigeria air force (NAF), navy, and army”.