By Tina Amanda
The management of Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company, PHED, has lamented debt of over two hundred billion (N200) naira owed the company by customers in Rivers, Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom and Cross Rivers states, noting that the debt must be recovered.
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of PHED, Dr Benson Uwheru, stated this at the 10th anniversary ceremony of PHED held in Port Harcourt, expressed concern that lot of host communities under it’s franchise area are using electricity power supply, but refuses to pay their bills.
Dr. Uwheru revealed that over N200 billion debt is being owed by government Ministries, Department and Agencies across the four states of its franchise, namely Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River and Rivers State, N31.5 billion debt owed by Afam community, Oyigbo LGA, Rivers State.
He disclosed that there is a huge gap between the company’s billed energy and collection, which makes it difficult for the company to remain in business effectively.
“We have couple of communities in Bayelsa that do not pay bills. Itu is a community in Akwa Ibom, they use power and they do not pay for it.
“So when you look at our billed energy and our collection, you will find out that there is a huge gap. So it ties together the challenge of power distribution, where people want power but do not want to pay; so how do we remain in business.
“On revenue growth we have achieved over 60 percent revenue growth since we came on board over one year ago. We met 4.6 billon revenue and we have increased it to 7billion.
“The Afam issue transcends privatization they are historical issues and legacy issues, but it has aggravated with time. Every month at least N400million worth of energy goes to Afam, you can multiply that within 12 months
“The debt of MDAs are over N200 billion. My appeal is that all state government within our franchise will find a way to ensure that their MDAs are fully metered and pay electricity supply.
“It’s just an entitlement mentality, there is no contract that we entered into that said any community will enjoy free power, that is a misconception and wrong perception which must be discouraged. Electricity supply is a service designed to be paid for and so those who use it must pay for it”.
The PHED Director also said that the company is faced with other challenges such as vandalism, high rate of foreign exchange amongst others.
“The number of transformers that are vandalised every week is a huge challenge in this sector. How do you do business when enemies continue to invade the network and cart away key network infrastructure like transformer and cables.
“We also have weak network infrastructure which needs to be optimized in order for us to be able to distribute power to all. Indeed the last 10 years has been riddled with challenges as well as opportunities.
“Some of the challenges we have are entirely on us, but third parties. We have constraint with gas; the gas supply is not enough, the issue of foreign exchange, how do you pay for gas that is dominated in foreign currency considering the exchange rate.
“We also have constraints from limitations from transmission, but since the disco are at the last chain of the industry, we are always at the receiving end .
“Legacy liabilities issues inherited from nepa and phcn”.
Dr. Uwheru appealed to all its customers to always pay for electricity supply.
“I want to use this opportunity to appeal to all our customers to always pay for their bills, that is the only way we can distribute power to all, is when customers pay for the service we render”.
