Discos Apologise to Nigerians Over Worsening Power Supply, Warn Against Return to Blame Game

The Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED) has apologised to Nigerians for the deterioration in electricity supply across the country in recent weeks. ANED chief executive Sunday Oduntan tendered the apology on Monday, November 9, during an appearance on Channels Television's Sunrise Daily programme, and warned that the sector was sliding back into the blame game that plagued it between 2016 and 2019.

Oduntan acknowledged the difficulties the outages have caused households and businesses. "I'd like to first of all start by apologising to Nigerians. An apology is needed; it is essential because Nigerians have been taken through this problem over the past few weeks," he said.

Blame game returns

The apology came after several electricity industry operators issued separate statements over the weekend seeking to distance themselves from responsibility for the shortages. The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), the Nigerian Independent System Operator (NISO) and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited all offered explanations about what caused the supply shortfall.

Oduntan said the pattern was a worrying return to the years between 2016 and 2019, when distribution companies, generation companies, transmission operators and gas suppliers routinely blamed one another for poor electricity supply.

"Our major problem is that we have started that very wrong route that we went through between 2016 and 2019. What is that? Blame game," he said.

Oduntan questions NNPC's explanation

NISO had partly attributed the shortfall to low water levels and insufficient gas reaching power generation companies. NNPC subsequently said gas was available.

Oduntan said NNPC's response left critical questions unanswered, particularly whether outstanding payments were disrupting gas deliveries to power plants.

"From the NNPC statement, it is very clear that they came to tell us half-truths. What I would have expected NNPC to do is to go ahead and tell us whether there are payment issues. We need to know whether gas was paid for and delivered, who did, who didn't," he said.

Minister asked to take charge

The ANED chief executive called on the Minister of Power, Joseph Tegbe, to take charge of resolving the disagreements among electricity sector operators. He wants the minister to bring gas suppliers, NNPC, TCN and NISO together to establish the actual causes of the problem and agree on solutions.

"This back-and-forth blame game among gas suppliers, NNPC and, of course, TCN or NISO, I think the Minister of Power needs to take charge. There is a need for this leadership because, at the end of the day, they need to call them together," Oduntan said.

The supply crisis is hitting manufacturers and small businesses that depend on grid power and spend heavily on diesel and petrol generators as backup. For households, longer outages mean higher spending on fuel at a time when petrol prices remain a heavy burden on family budgets.

Separately, Ikeja Electric has introduced a buy-now-pay-later electricity scheme that allows eligible customers to receive up to N20,000 worth of units on credit before settling the cost later. The distribution company said the offering, called Energy Advance, is meant to prevent unexpected power interruptions when units run out.