Electricity Consumers Association of Nigeria (ECAN) said, after reviewing the actions taken by Geometric Power Limited, which provides electricity to Aba Power, which, in turn, supplies power to nine of the 17 local government areas (LGAs) in Abia State that make up the Aba Ring-fence area (RFA), they have come to trust the integrated electricity distribution company.
Some of the actions by Geometric Power include “the provision of smart meters, free of charge, to over 95 percent of consumers, though it cost N43 billion to procure, and installed them through vendor financing, even though it (Geometric Power) is only three years in operation, which translated to zero billing on days there were no electricity supply.
Other actions are the empathy exhibited by the 12th DisCo to all its customers during power disruptions. Taking prompt disciplinary measures against both its staff members and agents of its business partners who tried to compromise the system by asking consumers for payment before the installation of the smart meters. Quick response to calls from customers irrespective of their statuses.
Arising from the foregoing actions, the ECAN said they have public confidence in Aba Power, especially its swift measures against partners despite longstanding relationships, citing its disengagement of a wire and cable
“This [is] a remarkable departure from the practice where some DisCos that started operations since 2013 hoard prepaid meters, and so rely on estimated billings to exploit customers”.
According to the Southeast branch of ECAN, in a statement after its third quarterly meeting at Owerri, Imo State, where it reviewed the recent power outages in the Aba Ring-fenced Area occasioned by natural gas supply disruptions to the 188-megawatt Geometric Power Plant, they realised that the recent power supply disruption was as a result of cut in gas supply to Geometric Power.
As a result, ECAN urges Nigerian businesses to embrace transparency, trust and accountability in their operations because it is in their own trust to do so.
“From our study of the gas supply crisis, neither the Abia State government nor the businesses and people of Aba would have treated the (gas supply cut) development with so much understanding and sympathy if not for the record of transparency, accountability, probity, and trust that Aba Power, Nigeria’s 12th and newest electricity distribution (DIsCo), has long established”.
Chris Okpara, ECAN chairman in the South-East, and Joseph Ubani, the secretary, lauded Aba Power, particularly its swift measures over the disengagement of a wire and cable supplier during the Easter holidays last April for not making an alternative arrangement for the supply of materials from its stores for the Umuomainta community in Ngwa North LGA whose six poles were felled by storm and trucks.
“The disengagement signaled to all and sundry that Aba Power would not brook excuses for non-performance in emergencies even in rural communities. It’s critical to cultivate and maintain the reputation of promise keepers,” the body said in a statement to the media.
The NGO, also commended the DisCo for always responding promptly to communities, businesses and individuals with challenges regardless of their status, doing so with courtesy, unlike in the past when there was a different service provider.
ECAN stated that “all these factors that made the people in the Aba Ring-fenced Area sympathetic to Aba Power when they could not get electricity supplies due to severe gas shortages that lasted for days.
“It is delightful that the worst appears to be over as Heirs Energies, the gas supplier, is battling admirably for the rehabilitation and modernization of the aging Eastern Nigerian gas pipelines that were installed 50-60 years ago, worsened by the lingering legal dispute between the Nigerian government during the President Muhammadu Buhari administration and Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) that operated Oil Mining Licence (OML) 17 at Owaza in Ukwa West Local Government Area in Abia State which made the petroleum giant unable to invest in the infrastructure for the years the law suit lasted.
“We, therefore, recommend to Nigerian businesses to embrace transparency, probity, and accountability because these virtues give rise to trust. Trust, as studies have shown over the decades, is not just a personal virtue but an organizational, economic and development imperative. It drives rapid growth and national development more than most people seem to realize,” the ECAN executive said.
