GODWIN IDEMUDIA, GENERAL MANAGER CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS EKO ELECTRICITY DISTRIBUTION PLC SPEAKS ON POWER DISTRIBUTION
Scroll Report: There are allegations that some distribution companies reject power. Does Eko Disco also reject?
Idemudia : No we don’t. Instead we get additional megawats from Paras Engineering and Egbin to meet up with our customers demands. Our customers are well enlightened and they are willing to pay. We discuss with them first before we go into the deal with them. We get about 40 megawatss on a daily basis to give to our prinme customers and they are happy. On a good day we need between 700 and 1000 megawats to distribute to all our 8 districts. But what we get presently is 4 megawats. That is why we are looking for other means to get power.
Scroll Report: How is the business doing?
Idemudia: We are not making profit. We buy at for instance N50 and sell for N30. This is because Nigerians love free things. Thats is why we are clamouring for review in tarrif.
Scroll Report: But Nigerians are saying that they can not pay for darkness. That they must first get steady power supply then tarrif can be reviewed.
Idemudia: It can’t work. That is why the power situation went so bad. The Father Christmas aspect is gone. The sector had been abandoned by the military. Bringing it back is not easy. To generate one megawat it cost 1 million dollars.
Scroll Report: How about the issue of prepaid metres. Have you given your customers free of charge?
Idemudia: We have started distributing metres free in all our 8 districts. Which include, Badore, Ijora, Mushin, Surulere, Badagry, Lekki-Ibeju, Chevron and Festac. Right now we are distributing in Festac. But we can’t give everyone at the same time. For those who can’t wait we told them to get money for us to fix the metres for them and we repay later.
