N47 billion bill debt: Abuja DisCo threatens to cut-off power supply to Presidential villa, CBN gov, others
The Abuja Electricity Distribution Company threatened to cut off power to the Presidential Villa and 86 Federal Government Ministries, Departments, and Agencies on Monday due to unpaid debts totaling N47,195 billion as of December 2023.
AEDC revealed this in a report on Monday. Some of the affected MDAs are the Chief of Defence Staff – Barracks and Military Formations, which owes N12 billion, the FCT Ministry, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of State Petroleum, the Ministries of Health, Information, Education, and Agriculture.
Others are the Federal Inland Revenue Service, Ministry of Education, CBN governor, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Budget and Planning, Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Ministry of Interior, Head ECOWAS, and Ministry of Transport, among others.
While issuing a notice of disconnection to the affected MDAs, AEDC said, “The management of the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) has given a 10 days’ notice to 86 government (institutions) to pay up the N47.1bn electricity debt they owe or risk disconnection.
“The Abuja Electricity Distribution PLC is constrained to do this publication with the details of Government, Ministries, Departments and Agencies with long outstanding unpaid bills for services rendered to them through the provision of electricity supply in that our previous attempts to make them honour their obligations have not achieved the desired results.”
The firm also urged the MDAs to pay up before the disconnection time slated for Wednesday, February 28, 2024.
“The relevant MDAs are hereby given notice that the AEDC shall, after the expiration of 10 days from the date of this publication, that is, after Wednesday, February 28, 2024, embark on the disconnection of our services to them until they discharge their obligations to us by paying their debts.”
In 2019, the Federal Executive Council had approved the inclusion of the presidential villa in the eligible customer policy.
This was made known by Hakeem Bello, special adviser on communications to the then minister of power, Babatunde Fashola, who said the approval was to improve the electricity supply and distribution in the country.
He said the approval was made at the FEC meeting in response to a memorandum submitted by the minister seeking approval to include the presidential villa in the distribution expansion programme earlier approved by the council.
The eligible customer regulation, which was issued by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) in mid-2017, permits electricity customers to buy power directly from the electricity generation companies (GenCos), other than distribution companies (DisCos), in line with the provisions of section 27 of the Electric Power Sector Reform Act 2005.
The programme seeks to enable unutilised 2000 megawatts (MW) from the GenCos to be distributed to targeted metered customers.
“The Ministry had earlier obtained approval from the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) following its letter to the Bureau intimating it of the Council’s approval of the Distribution Expansion Programme with the intention of the ninistry to procure civil works that would facilitate uninterrupted power supply to the Aso Rock Villa and curb the present erratic supply of power in spite of the availability of power by the Generation Companies (GenCos),” Bello said.