Why Kano, Katsina, Jigawa experience erratic power supply -KEDCO

From Mustapha Adamu, Kano

Kano Electricity Distribution Company, KEDCO has given reasons why it is experiencing shortage of power supply in its franchise area.
Speaking at a press conference, held at the KEDCO headquarters in Kano on Tuesday, Abubakar Yusuf, Ag. Managing Director/CEO of the company, attributed the shortage in supply to inadequate power generation across the country.
According to him, in the last 3 months KEDCO had been receiving an average of 180 Megawatts, which is grossly below the required average of 300MW to sufficiently supply customers in its three states of operation, namely; Kano, Katsina and Jigawa.
Yusuf noted that the development had forced the company to engage in massive load shedding of its feeders in a bid to serve its teeming customers with the meagre quantum of energy available to it.
The acting MD also attributed the problem to what he described as high spate of vandalization lately, averaging 3 vandalization acts daily.
“This has equally handicapped our abilities to carry out our services effectively. Aside from huge sums of money involved in replacing vandalized equipment, the heinous act throws our dear customers into darkness before repairs or replacement takes place.
“May I use this opportunity to appeal to our dear customers to kindly assist in safeguarding these power infrastructures within their communities. Even though we are trying our best, we certainly can’t be everywhere, every time.
“Regrettably also, another major setback we are experiencing is non or underpayment of electricity bills as well as energy theft by some customers. This also hinders our abilities to fully pay for the electricity we have been supplied by the Generation and Transmission arms of the power sector.
This is also contributing to the liquidity crises in the power sector inhibiting the ability to generate, transmit and distribute more power, because the money customers pay, is recycled back for power generation, other operations, and maintenance of power infrastructure,” Yusuf lamented.
Why apologizing to the customers on the current situation, the MD said the company assures them that it is up and doing by engaging all relevant stakeholders for improved power supply within the shortest possible time.
“We do acknowledge how important electricity supply is to our customers, socially and economically and especially considering the harshness of the current weather situation coupled with the commencement of holy month of Ramadhan.
“We wish to inform our customers that, nothing excites us more than delivering adequate power supply and efficient services for the satisfaction of our teeming customers, and a more prosperous power sector. This is why we are in this business, and no businessman will deliberately deny customers the goods he is selling,” he appealed.