Liberalization of the power sector have kickstarted series of discussions between Ikeja Electric and the duo of Cadbury and Coca-Cola to connect the two multi-nationals to the national grid.
The two companies have since inception and due to the poor power situation in the country been generating electricity on their own to meet their operational demands.
NBC is one of the biggest companies in the non-alcoholic beverage industry in Nigeria serving approximately 160 million people. It is the sole franchise bottler of The Coca-Cola Company
Cadbury Nigeria, makers of food beverages and confectioneries is also one of the largest firm in the country
“With privatization, plans have reached advanced stage to hook them back on the IE’s power network” said Christopher Lawal, Manager Ikeja Business unit of IE.
Power sector privatisation was concluded November 2013 and the new owners have since been bring in, massive infrastructural upgrades, congenial work environment, improved staff welfare and prompt service delivery to customers among other positive changes.
Lawal at a meeting with the post-privatisation monitoring team of the BUreau of Public Enterprises (BPE) said the firms is reaping from privatisation which has shot up its revenue by about N700 million.
“Because of the benefits of privatization, leakages have been blocked and the Unit generates N1.1bn monthly compared to the N400,000 in the pre-privatization period.
Lawal said the Unit has 28 injection stations and supplies its customers with 80-100 megawatts of electricity though the required demand is 376 megawatts.
”We plan to up the current supply to 250 megawatts”, he added.
He hinted that the Unit has blazed the trail in metering as 1,200 meters have been installed for customers and that Guinness/Harp is its highest paid customer which rakes in between N26-N27million monthly.
At the Oshodi Business Unit, its Manager, Sunday Oyewale said the Unit collects N1.211bn monthly, compared to N602 million in the pre-privatization period.
He said because of the improvement in services, 134,000 customers were now on its network compared to 128,000 in the pre-privatization period.The Manager expressed optimism that the figure will soar after the metering of customers.
According to him, following privatization, customers have begun to followthe rules while the older ones are being re-oriented .He added that for a seamless service delivery to the customers, one marketer was assigned to 900 customers as against the previous arrangement of one marketer to 1,500.
On the complaints of non-provision of meters to customers who purportedly have paid for them, the Manager said none of such customers had been able to provide documentary evidence that they paid for the meters.
“The truth of the matter is that these people feel since PHCN has been privatized, there are no records and so they come up with this claim which none has been able to substantiate”.
The Business Managers for Shomolu, Akowonjo, Ikorodu and Abule-Egba, Messers Taofik Basanya,Lateef Olaleye,Mohammed Abdullahi and Lawrence Okoye , respectively, spoke in unison that the privatization of the sector has not only improved the working conditions of staff but also brought about enhanced service delivery and revenue collection.
The Managers, who were staff of the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) before their employment by the IE, blamed the resistance of the former staff of the public entity to privatization on non- education of the benefits of privatization.
The BPE team leader, Ignatius Ayewoh commended the strides and noted that the BPE was keen on seeing that owners of the new power companies fulfilled the covenants with the government.
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