The Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED) said that electricity consumers in the country paid N362bn out of the N520bn billed them from January to September last year.
ANED, the umbrella body for the 10 private Discos in the country in a new report said the power firms lost N158bn, representing 30.38 per cent of the energy billed in the nine-month period.
According to the latest quarterly performance report, the Discos’ revenue collection rose to N130bn in the third quarter of 2020 from N105bn in Q2 and N125bn in Q1.
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The electricity distributors had in the Q2 of 2020 lamented that over 40 per cent of electricity consumers do not pay their electricity bills while they indulge in illegal connection of electricity.
The power distribution companies during a public hearing in Abuja by the Senate Committee on Power, attributed the challenges of power theft and non-payment of electricity bill by consumers to form the major part of the DisCos’ Aggregate Technical, Commercial and Collection (ATC&C) losses.
ANED said the collection improved as a result of Discos’ effort to recoup losses during the COVID-19 lockdown, although the energy received by them dropped by 4.3 per cent in Q3.
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“The Discos are back on track on their performance improvement after the fall due to the pandemic. Indeed, in September 2020, Discos collection reached a new record of N44.5bn,” it said.
ANED said the Discos’ collection efficiency rose to 76.28 per cent in Q3. It however said, “Due to the severe impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, in particular during the Q2 2020, the ATC&C (Aggregate Technical, Commercial and Collection loss KPI (moving average) keeps increasing and is now at 46.1 per cent.
“Paradoxically, the MYTO financial model that determines the tariff has not been adjusted and still considers average ATC&C losses of about 20 per cent for this year.
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“The huge gap between the reality and the fiction of the MYTO model is creating a huge shortfall and the real revenue collection is far from the minimum remittance obligations.
By Peace Obi
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