IBEDC invests N14bn in technical infrastructure

The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC), Engr Kingsley Achife, has said that the company intends to invest N14 billion in technical infrastructure to improve its operations.

Engr Achife said during a media call at the company’s headquarters in Ibadan that the investment, which will span over a period of 18 months, is aimed at strengthening the company’s network and repositioning the company through infrastructural development.

He said: “In terms of investment, the federal government has been a source of help to this industry. But there is a reason for that, the rate has never been cost-reflective. The government has recognized this and helped us make investments, but those investments are loans.

“We also attract supplier financing. People have approached us that they want to take parts of our area and invest and improve the network and work with us to get their money back over time. We also make investments ourselves, as well as the investments that individuals and communities make.

“For IBEDC, more than N14 billion has been committed to the system, most of which will go to the technical infrastructure. We already plan to deliver around 300 new transformers this year. There’s also an interface between us and transmission (TCN), where they’re going to put in some new stuff and when they do, we can take power. And we have to lay pipes to be able to take power.”

He said that the company is committed to providing excellent services to its customers by taking several measures.

“We’re looking at the source and distribution where we’re going to create commercial lines, we’re going to provide premium services, we’re going to look at our network – how we get energy and how we distribute it.

“There is a huge gap in energy supply and demand in Nigeria. That’s why we’ve looked at energy procurement and distribution as one of the things we need to get serious about and we’ve gone to a number of companies to see if we can buy additional off-grid power to serve our communities .

“We provide excellence in our service to our customers by ensuring that the underserved and underserved communities reduce the number of people in these categories.

“We have about 550 disadvantaged communities, we address this with franchising. We have been able to franchise three of them and more will follow. We are also tackling it with mini-grids and solar energy. We are also going to address it by offering a number of other services,” he said.

The IBEDC helmsman said the company has been able to address metering shortfalls and revenue shortfalls in its franchise territory through the Meter Asset Provider (MAP) scheme.

“The most important measurement program of the regulator is the Meter Asset Provider (MAP). Last year we were able to have 127,000 measured. This year, as there is more exposure, we hope that we should be able to have 250,000. This will help reduce the challenge of metering and if the government comes out with the mass metering program we hope we can reduce our metering deficit.

“We started by measuring each transformer. Hopefully we will do the measurement this year. We hope to be able to show each community how much energy they used each month, so that even if we can’t measure every home, we can know how much a transformer has used. Once we start doing that, they won’t accuse us of giving outrageous bills,” he said.

Engr Achife also noted that, in its desire to improve the well-being of its workforce, the company delivered 39 staff training courses by 2022 and increased staff salaries by 25 percent across the board.