The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has cautioned electricity consumers in Anambra State against giving in to requests by officials of the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC) to purchase items such as transformers, poles, or cables. According to the Commission, these are investments meant to be provided by the distribution companies and should not be shifted to consumers.

This warning was delivered during a town hall meeting in Awka, where NERC’s Commissioner for Stakeholders Management, Hajiya Aisha Mohammed, represented by the Head of Consumer Protection, Dr. Zubairu Babatunde, stressed that any such demands must be documented and reported to NERC for immediate intervention. She explained that NERC’s role is to regulate the activities of electricity distribution companies and ensure that customers are treated fairly. Mohammed encouraged dissatisfied consumers to lodge complaints through proper channels, assuring them that the Commission is committed to addressing their concerns.

The town hall also provided a platform for discussions on persistent issues such as metering, billing, supply irregularities, and service quality. NERC officials, who will remain in the state for three days, monitored the distribution of prepaid meters and assured that customers would receive their meters during the exercise.

Representing the EEDC’s Managing Director, the company’s Chief Information Officer, Dr. Idika Okechukwu, disclosed that a new meter laboratory has been established in Onitsha to speed up the installation process. He pledged that any consumer who pays for a meter would have it installed within 72 hours.

Okechukwu further revealed that out of the 1,365,400 registered electricity users in Anambra, about 750,000 have already been metered. He reaffirmed the company’s commitment to meeting NERC’s metering directives and announced plans to launch an offline bill payment system before the end of the month to ease transactions for customers.