Don’t pay after two weeks outage - NERC tells electricity users
- Nigerians are expected not to pay service charges if there is power outage for 2 weeks
- This was disclosed by Prof. James Momoh, chairman of Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC)
- According to him, survey conducted indicated that Nigerians were willing to pay for what they consume.
The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) on Friday, May 10, said that with the Meter Asset Provider (MAP) regulation, electricity users will not pay electricity distribution companies energy and service charges if there is power outage for 2 weeks.
This was disclosed by Prof. James Momoh, chairman of Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), at the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) launch of the MAP in Abuja.
READ ALSO: Court restrains Governor Ganduje from reducing Emir Sanusi's powers
He said the MAP programme was an intervention to eliminate estimated billing and guarantee more revenue for the power sector. He said that survey conducted indicated that Nigerians were willing to pay for what they consume.
Consequently, Momoh who was represented by the general manager, Finance and Management Services, Abdulkadir Shettima directed MAP vendors to ensure meters are installed within 10 days after payment by consumers .
He said if a meter is about to be installed, it must be installed within 10 days of making payment and that there will be sanctions of that deadline is not met.
Going further, he said to ensure there will be sanction, the MAP has been asked to provide a bank performance guarantee that will be called upon "so they will lose money if they delay in providing the meters even by one day.
“Number three, if the meters get bad, they will be replaced by the MAP without any payment for the entire ten years period. If the meters don’t work they must be replaced within two days, if they are not replaced within two days, the customer will not make the monthly customers service charge payment. That payment will be seized.
“Another part of the regulation is that if there is a prolonged outage and they are out of electricity for months, in addition to other measure that the commission is taking to address those kind of scenarios, the customer will not pay for the meter service charge and will not even pay for the electricity if there is outage for more than two weeks.”
READ ALSO: NAIJ.com upgrades to Legit.ng: a letter from our Editor-in-Chief Bayo Olupohunda
Recall that Legit.ng had reported that there was electricity outage across some states in the country following the collapse of the national electricity grid.
NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng. We have upgraded to serve you better Fashola
EXCLUSIVE Interview: How Nigeria Can Have Uninterrupted Power Supply - on Legit TV.
Source: Legit.ng