The Chief Executive Officer of the Jos Electricity Distribution Company, Mr. George Chiatula, has apologised to Nigerians for the poor services rendered by the Power Holding Company of Nigeria

Chiatula, who spoke at an interactive session with customers and distribution companies within the Jos metropolis on Tuesday, said that it was to make electricity regular, affordable and more sustainable that the Federal Government embarked on the power sector reforms.

Chiatula said that this could be overcome with the Federal Government’s independent power projects and other interventionist programmes.

According to him, over the years, the company had faced high operating cost of over N130m monthly, adding that with over 328,000 customers, the company had to provide electricity to an average of eight people in a household giving a total of 2.6m people.

He said that with the new reforms, a new dawn was expected in the power sector as it had made electricity business a matter of “purchase and pay,” which meant that every unit of electricity sent to any distribution centre must be accounted for.

He stated that the company had, however, not been daunted by these challenges as it had in the past six months, procured materials worth over N100m for the maintenance of the system.

The Commissioner, Government and Consumer Affairs of the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission, Dr. Grace Eyoma, in her lecture, Protecting the Rights of Customers and Distribution Companies, asked all Nigerians to embrace the reforms in the power sector as it was meant to remove all encumbrances to regular power supply.

She said that NERC, as the regulatory body, would ensure that all the stakeholders in the sector got fair deal in the reform exercise.

Eyoma said that NERC would encourage and promote competition and private sector participation, establish appropriate operating codes and safety, security, reliability and quality standards as well as establish appropriate consumer rights and obligations.

NERC, she said, would ensure fairness by licensing and regulating persons engaged in the generation, transmission, system operation, distribution and trading of electricity.

The commission, he said, would also approve amendments to the market rules; monitor operations of the electricity market and undertake such other activities are necessary for realising the objectives of the commission.