The Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors, ANED,on Tuesday said Electricity Distribution Companies, DISCOs, had increased the collection of revenue from users of electricity across the country to N466 billion.
ANED said Discos had raised electricity revenue collection by N43 billion in the last one year, while reducing their aggregate technical, commercial and collection losses to 45 per cent.
It stated that the 10 Discos under the umbrella of ANED increased the collection of revenue for the industry to N466 billion from October 2018 to June 2019.
The association’s Director, Research and Advocacy, Sunday Oduntan, said the Discos also raised their collection efficiency (capacity to collect money for energy supplied to customers) by 67 per cent.
This was higher than the N423bn they collected from their customers between October 2017 and September 2018 when the collection efficiency was 65 per cent.
“This is a reflection of Discos’ commitment to reduce losses even within the context of the financial crisis of the power sector,” Oduntan stated.
He observed that the Discos, while increasing their collections by N43 billion, also raised billing efficiency by five per cent during the period under review.
An analysis of the Key Performance Indicators report which the Discos submitted to the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission showed that the power distributors reduced their aggregate technical, commercial and collection losses by 3.6 per cent within one year.
The ATC&C of the power firms was 49 per cent in 2018 and was reduced to 45 per cent in 2019.
Oduntan noted that the reduction was significant, relative to a starting point of 54 per cent during the handover from government to private investors.
This, he said, was also within the context of liquidity challenges and lack of access to capital for investment.
On the energy delivered to the Discos, ANED stated that customers were billed for 20,600 gigawatts hour of energy from 2017 to 2018, amounting to N650 billion, of which N423 billion was collected.