…says estimated billings are dubious
Governor Francis Nwifuru of Ebonyi State has called on Electricity Stakeholders to address issues of estimated billing to encourage electricity subscribers to continue paying for power.
The governor, who was part of Southeast governors that attended a Business Roundtable on Light-Up Nigeria Project for Southeast on Monday aimed at arriving at sustainable solutions to perennial power shortfall held in Enugu, noted that estimated billings seemed dubious and brought untold hardship on the users of electricity
BusinessDay reports that Business Roundtable was organised at the instance of the Niger Delta Power Holding Company of Nigeria, NDPHCN meant to find lasting solutions to electricity generation, transmission and distribution in the Zone and Nigeria at large.
Speaking at the event attended by Vice President Kashim Shettima, elder statesmen and captains of industries, the governor noted that the masses could not continue to pay for services they didn’t consume.
He said, “How can you expect people to pay electricity bills when billing is still by estimation? Where people are made to pay exorbitantly most times for power they did not consume, so let us start there to ensure metering of all electricity consumers before taking the drive to another level.”
Vice President Kashim Shettima assured that the Government of Bola Tinubu would work assiduously to ensure a massive turnaround in electricity supply to the Country and Southeast Region in particular.
“We can not afford to cut off South East from the electricity supply, the little they get must be sustained and even jacked up, so be rest assured that His Excellency President Bola Ahmed Tinubu means well for the South East People.”
Also, Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State expressed hope that the outcome of the roundtable would help address power challenges in the Zone.
“Today we are flagging off, what is in my view, a new dawn in the power sector in the Southeast. If we fix power, every other sector would have fallen in place”, he said.
Adebayo Adelabu, Minister of Power, however, called on leaders of Southeast to devise means of checkmating vandalism of electricity infrastructure to forestall grid collapse in the area.
