By Aisi Atiti
Nigeria is not known for its data collection and management prowess, for context, there has been no official census since 2006, so we do not even know how many Nigerians there are now. The same can be said for electricity consumers as there is no cogent database for electricity consumers in the country presently. The distribution companies (DisCos) are currently still trying to carry out enumeration exercises. The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has the mandate to monitor the Electricity Industry but it has not been as effective as the lack of industry-wide data has hampered its activities. The effect can be felt by consumers who often complain of poor service being meted out by the DisCos. As Service-Based Tariffs are about to be re-introduced, it begs the question of how consumers can be assured of good quality service delivery when the DisCos do not fully know their consumers.
Over the years, the distribution companies (DisCos) have been known to inflate electricity bills and charge consumers for power not supplied. There have been consumer reports and complaints of excessive billing by distribution companies across the country, this necessitated an order for the capping of estimated billing. Despite this order, many consumers still feel that the amount being charged does not reflect the poor service they are often provided.
NERC has often been perceived to be lax on its regulatory duties, especially when it comes to sanctioning DisCos. This can be said to be as a result of a lack of data accurate data.
With the introduction of the new Service Based Tariff regime which aims to increase consumer tariff based on the number of hours they are supplied electricity in average, there is need to answer some questions; How will the DisCos track the amount of electricity provided to consumers? How can NERC ascertain that the data shared by DisCos is accurate?
The reason why consumers should have an electricity data record that would help monitor the number of hours daily that they get electricity to inform them when they are being overbilled by the DisCos. More so, because, before the introduction of the new tariff regime, consumers already complained that they did not get the number of hours of electricity supply the DisCos reported they distributed.
To ensure that they are not extorted by the DisCos, electricity consumers in the country should calculate and document the number of hours they get electricity daily, for every month. Through this, when DisCos try to excessively bill consumers, they can be contested with evidence and reported to the NERC.
Even though the Discos assert that they carefully monitor the number of hours consumers get in other to bill them accordingly, it is of utmost importance to the consumers that they have their records to hold DisCos up in cases where they misplace their responsibilities.