. ‘High cost of diesel, erratic power supply killing industries in Nigeria’

The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu has backed citizens’ demand for quality service delivery in the power sector, especially electricity supply to the populace.

Coming weeks after the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) launched an application for consumers to report power outages, Adelabu said they could have recourse when services fail.

Speaking during the presentation of service charter by the Nigerian Electricity Management Services Agency (NEMSA) in Abuja, yesterday, Adebayo, who was represented by the Director, Reform Coordination and Service Improvement, at the ministry, Titilayo Abeyo, said the 2023 service charter is flexible enough to give customers recourse when services fail.

The service charter, according to him, serves as a promise that citizens could expect and demand quality services from service providers in the sector.

He said the service charter is crucial to the management, staff, and stakeholders of NEMSA as the initiative would provide essential ingredients to continually improve its service delivery to the general public.

“The service charter establishes a high standard of service that the electricity can expect from the power sector, it provides information on how the customer can comment on the agency’s services, including how complaints can be lodged, compliments and suggestions made. The charter will improve services, give education on the rights and obligations of electricity consumers’ complaints through redress mechanisms, and improve staff competence, skills, productivity, and human administration.”

In his opening address, the Managing Director of NEMSA, Tukur Aliyu, revealed that the launch of the service charter would benefit the agency and the nation in general.

“The launching of the service charter will benefit us all in this agency and the nation in general. It is a policy guideline for effective delivery that sets the mandate and obligation of the agency to the customer and the customer’s obligation to the agency to ensure the delivery of quality services to the customer,” he stated.

Meanwhile, industry stakeholders have decried the impacts of high cost of energy in Nigeria, especially the rising cost of diesel, insisting that industries are shutting down over the development.

The stakeholders, who gathered in Abuja at a golf tournament to mark the 10th anniversary of the privatisation of the power sector called for ingenious solutions to the problem of erratic power supply in Nigeria.

Indeed, the unabating energy crisis in the country has already pushed diesel prices to over N1,100 per litre, a development which saw manufacturers spending N129 billion in 2016, N117.38 billion in 2017, N93.11 billion in 2018, N61.38 billion in 2019, N81.91 billion in 2020, N71.22 billion in 2021 and N144.3 billion in 2022 on alternative energy.

With an average of 95 manufacturing companies shutting down yearly, with Glaxosmithkline being the latest, over 4,451 job losses are being impacted yearly in the manufacturing sector alone as factory output value dropped to N2.68 trillion in first quarter of 2022 from N3.73 trillion in the first quarter of the year according to statistics from the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria.

Former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, while decrying the development at the NESI Open Golf Tournament at the IBB International Golf and Country Club, Abuja said the erratic power supply in the country is a bottleneck to industrial growth.

“The fact is that industries are dying and many businesses are being affected because of the escalating cost of power, cost of diesel and coupled with irregular electricity. I am a farmer as well and farms around me are shutting down, closing businesses because they cannot afford the cost of energy.

“So, it’s good we have these discussions because without electricity, you cannot engage in meaningful production. And it has been said that we must produce what we eat and eat what we produce, but if we don’t have access to power, there’s no way we can achieve that,” Dogara said.

According to him, Nigeria must find a way to generate more power to save industries, which are already distressed.

He noted that the development is also affecting farmers, adding that the country must constantly and consistently seek home grown solutions to energy security.

Also, speaking at the competition, which was won by Queen Kegbe of the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company, Chairman of the Planning Committee and Chairman, of West Power and Gas, George Etomi, said the event created an avenue for the industry players to apart from sport discussion, to look at the issue of the power sector from another dimension.

He sees the sport as a milestone in the journey towards a more sustainable and electrified future for Nigeria.