By Wole Adedeji in Kaduna
As the poor electricity supply in Nigeria gets worse each day, the Kaduna-Electric, one of the distribution companies (Discos) contracted to distribute power to assigned sections of the country, may be in bigger trouble than others in a short time to come.
A check by this reporter who was on a visit to Kaduna and experienced poor power supply than other places across the country showed that there could be more than meet the eyes in the operations of DisCo.
According to the findings, the presence of multi-billion naira industries like Peugeot Automobiles Nigeria (PAN) Nigeria Limited), Kaduna Furniture and Carpets Company (KFCC) and several others are almost grounded when this reporter visited the factories.
They were seen operating at about less than 5% of their production capacities, which they described as skeletal productions.
A resident, Alhaji Yakubu Muktar, who first spoke with this reporter said Kaduna-Electric had subjected its customers to untold hardships in recent time because of its gross under-services and poor customer relationships.
According to him, aside from irregular services to customers, Kaduna-Electric also with brazen acts of impunity, supplies power on occasions, a maximum of two hours per day if it does at all, to selected areas, including the Government Reservation Area (GRA) of the metropolis.
Similarly, Mallam Sunkur Ado who spoke with this reporter at Kazua market in Kaduna said: “We are made to pay for electricity we do not consume by force. I have pre-paid meter in my house but Kaduna-Electric compels us to recharge every month whether we have used up our card or not.”
Another person, Richard Okoli a trader at Abuja junction said: “I understand this Kaduna-Electric people want us to keep recharging so that they can meet up with the target they were given in order to escape being shut down by the Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN.
“They don’t care whether we enjoy electricity or not. For more than one year now, I have been using solar power in my house after using generator to recharge its inverter.
“My brother, na trouble we dey o.”
At the PAN Nigeria Limited, the complex of the Franco-Nigerian outfit was like a ghost community. A carcass of a Peugeot 304 was seen placed on some kind of stand while the number of staff one can see in the premises could not be more than 20.
A source, however, said the car’s carcass was meant for staff training. The few staff seen walking around did not look like trainees. They were not putting on overalls neither were they seen in any workshop.
The situation at the Kaduna Furniture and Carpet Company (KFCC) was extremely bad. The company that had been on since the Second Republic is said to be worth billions of naira by today’s rating.
Painting a gloomy picture of the company in an interview with this reporter, the duo of Alhaji Abdulnuhaninu Dauda and Engr. Shamaudeen Sanusi, General Manager Production and Company Production Engineer respectively, said KFCC on the 16 May, 2023 in particular, the multi-billion company enjoyed only 30 minutes’ public power supply.
According to them, that supply was even during the break time and was the climax of their terrible ordeal in the hands of Kaduna-Electric when power supply few months back started to get worse. The electricity distribution company they said, began to supply them 40 hours of electricity in five days, then it nose-dived into 10 hours in five days making it two hours per day and this is even done on Sundays when KFCC might not be producing.
These top managers of KFCC further disclosed that their plight which precisely began four years ago was that as against the old regular supply, the electricity company began by supplying power early in the morning till noon, then resumed later in the afternoon till 5 pm. With time, it got limited to the harmattan period of November to January before power began to collapse again, from the month of March for four years running.
One of them said: “We have 850 KVA, 500 KVA and 60 KVA generators which we use to generate alternative power supply which initially was gulping N1 million, later N3 million which is not in any way profitable to keep producing but we still keep on producing at far below our production capacity.
“We have laid off reasonable number of our staff but that had not helped in anyway. We just cannot shut down, bearing in mind the harsh effects on the workers. It’s like we are doing charity services now.
“It is sad that despite this poor services of Kaduna Electric, electricity tariff is still increased, a development that does not in any way reflect their services to the public. They should either prove that they are ready to serve the people or not.
“At this rate, for us to keep afloat, we will need about N50 million monthly to generate power for production”, the KFCC managers concluded.
This reporter was at the office of Kaduna Elect located along Kazua – Kawo area of the metropolis to get clarifications on issues raised but its Head of Corporate Communications; Mallam AbdulAzees Abdullahi, simply said: “I am not aware of these complaints you are talking about.”