THE Federal Government, on Wednesday, declared that it would withdraw the operating licences of power distribution companies that were intentionally not supplying electricity to consumers across the country, leading to widespread blackouts in Nigeria.
It stated that despite efforts by the Federal Ministry of Power and electricity generating companies, some Discos were not distributing the power supplied to them by the Transmission Company of Nigeria, which had resulted in abysmal supply since this year.
Power supply across the country has been terrible since January 2024, as many towns and cities nationwide have been thrown into darkness for weeks due to the lack of electricity.
In a post on his official X handle on Wednesday, the Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu, lamented the poor supply of electricity across the country, stressing that this was despite efforts by the government in tackling the challenge.
He, however, pointed out that findings by his ministry revealed that some power distribution companies were willfully not distributing electricity to end users in their various franchise areas.
Adelabu said, “It is disheartening to witness the decline in power supply despite the concerted efforts to improve the situation. The ministry has been exerting pressure on the generating companies to enhance their performance, resulting in a recent increase in generation to over 4,000MW.
“Despite this progress, certain distribution companies are failing to adequately distribute the power supplied by TCN, while vandalism of power infrastructure exacerbates the problem in regions such as Abuja, Benin, Port Harcourt, and Ibadan.
“Moving forward, I am committed to holding all distribution companies accountable for their performance. Willful non-performance will not be tolerated, and severe consequences, including licence revocation, may be imposed.
“Additionally, I have instructed TCN to prioritise repair works on damaged transmission towers and power lines to improve supply in affected regions.”
Recall that this newspaper reported on Monday that despite the widespread blackout and the worsening state of electricity supply in Nigeria, latest figures on daily load summary of power distribution companies indicated that the firms failed to distribute about 1,769.91 megawatts of electricity between February 1 and 14, 2024.
The report pointed out that data from TCN showed that though some of the power firms received excess electricity load allocation during the period, most of them failed to utilise all the quantum of energy allocated to them by TCN.
