Electricity: N58bn MDA debts stall progress, says Discos

The Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED) has said the N58 billion debt owed by Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) across the federation is affecting the services of its 11 Distribution companies (Discos).
ANED spokesman, Barrister Sunday Oduntan, who disclosed this yesterday during a press briefing in Abuja said the military was leading the debtors with over N15.1 billion, figures obtained from eight Discos as at December 2015, showed.
Oduntan said the debts have soared to over N60 billion by February 2016 with some of them lasting since 2013. The breakdown, he said, indicated that the army owed Kaduna Electric N6.6bn; Benin Disco, N2.3bn; Eko Disco, N1.8bn; and Ikeja Disco, N1.6bn.
Other Discos owed by the military are: Jos Disco with a debt of N2bn; Port Harcourt Disco, N1.3bn; Yola Disco, N435m; and Kano Disco, N301 million.
He added that soldiers from the 351 Artillery Brigade in Abeokuta recently beat up a Disco staff for power outage though the brigade, with installed meters, had not paid many of its bills since 2013.
“The practice of the Nigerian military beating up our distribution staff is totally unacceptable. The President who was also a top officer should call his boys to order,” Oduntan appealed.
Speaking on other issues in the electricity market, the ANED scribe said: “Many who are metered are bypassing the meters and it is affecting others who are on estimated billing. We are doing aggressive metering but it won’t happen in a year to meter the five million people.”