Ndukwe Ajah
The chairman of Aba Power Ltd, Professor Bart Nnaji, has directed the company to allow electricity consumers who want to stagger their payment for prepaid meters to do so with immediate effect.
This fact was made known this morning by the Aba Power managing director, Patrick Umeh, in a statement.
“Our chairman”, explained Umeh, a former commissioner with the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) “was moved to take this decision as a practical step to ameliorate the condition of millions of Nigerians passing through a difficult period in Nigeria’s history”.
Nigeria’s perennial economic crisis has been worsened in recent times by severe petrol and currency shortages arising from low imports of premium motor spirit (PMS) and the change of colours of the large denominations of the local currency.
“Given that many families are finding it difficult to afford three square meals a day and meet other basic obligations like paying for tuition and medical fees as well as utility bills”, the Aba Power boss, who is also an erstwhile executive of Los Angeles Water and Power Corporation in California, stated, “Professor Nnaji, a former Minister of Power, felt that it’s appropriate that individuals and firms that pay up to 50% of prepaid meters be given the meters and installed in their places so long as they undertake to pay the outstanding amount in two other installments”.
It costs N66,100 to install a single-phase metre and N117,900 for a three-phase meter.
Jude Efidi, an engineer and Aba Power sales manager, told journalists that consumers would be reimbursed the paymnets for the prepaid meters through energy credit.
Efidi said: “The consumers will recover the payments within 36 months unless they exhaust the amounts before the end of the three-year period”.
Aba Power Ltd has been providing electricity in the last one year to nine out of the 17 local government areas in Abia State.
“This means that the gesture by Professor Nnaji and Aba Power Ltd will affect the majority of individuals, groups and organisations positively and directly in Abia”, according to Senator Enyi Abaribe who reprsents Abia South in the National Assembly and is the immediate past Senate Minority Leader.
“I encourage other persons and groups in Abia State to follow the Professor Nnaji example and come to the aid of our people because things are very rough for most Abians and Nigerians in general”.
