Nigeria’s Power Sector About To Collapse – IBEDC Warns

The management of Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company, IBEDC, has warned that Nigeria’s power sector was on the brink of collapse.

Speaking on the issues confronting the power sector, Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer, CEO, IBEDC, Mr. John Donnachie, told newsmen that the power sector was full of complicated policies that do not address the root problems.

He said “I believe the more complicated we are making the power sector, the more problems we get. We need to solve the foundation of the power sector first. The foundation is not correct and we keep on building on it and the more you build on wrong foundation, the building would collapse.

“My opinion is that we need to go back and reset our original agreements of what the tariffs are, the rules and what we need to do and how we are going to finance the business, because everything is about money. Until those foundations are done, we are going to go backwards and not forward.

“I am not saying the policies and progress government is trying to put in place are wrong, but I am saying the foundation is wrong.”

Speaking further, Donnachie explained that the distribution companies, DISCOs were heavily indebted which was affecting their operations to deliver more to their customers, adding that “If our collection increases, we would be able to fulfill our responsibilities to our customers. Everything is about money. To buy meters we need money, to maintain the system we need money also.

“We strongly believe that with the partnership we had today, it would drive local performance into local regions that we are looking at. The first two months of the partnership is really looking good for us and so we are going to be training, hiring people and having a better customer service across our network areas. We have seen the results of the capacity building, improvement in performance. If we collect more, we would be able to do more.”