DISCOS want you to stop calling them NEPA if you want electricity

The Executive Director of Research and Advocacy, Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED), Sunday Oduntan has asked Nigerians to stop calling its members NEPA if they want electricity.

ANED is the umbrella body of electricity distribution companies in Nigeria (DisCos).

While speaking during a programme on TVC on Wednesday, January 15, 2020, Oduntan said, referring to DISCOS as NEPA or PHCN means Nigerians don’t want electricity. He added that that’s the way he saw it.

Before DISCOS, the National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) was in charge of power generation, transmission and distribution in Nigeria. The company later changed to Power Holding Company (PHCN) in 2013, during the administration of the former president, Goodluck Jonathan.

Oduntan said, “I understand how Nigerians feel when it comes to paying more for anything. But we also want Nigerians to understand the following. Number one, stop calling us NEPA.

“The more you call us NEPA, the more it shows that you don’t know that anything has changed in this country. It means that you don’t want any change. It means that you don’t even want electricity. That is the way I look at it.

“We are DisCos, but we are not dancing DisCos. We are distribution companies. PHCN is dead, NEPA is dead.”

On the proposed tariff increment by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Oduntan said the increase was necessitated by some factors.

He said, “More than 95% of what we use in the power sector are imported,” he said.

“Now, they have to look at foreign exchange, the rate of inflation. They have to look at the cost of generation, including the cost of gas. If all those things go down, tariff has to come down.”

See the video below.