Kaduna Electric promises effi cient power delivery

By AbdulRaheem Aodu Kaduna

Kaduna Electric at the weekend promised to double its eff orts in delivering effi cient power to its customers across its four franchise states despite the harsh economic challenges in the country. Addressing the maiden Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Kaduna Electric, Chairman of the Company, Alhaji Yusuf Hamisu Abubakar told shareholders that macro-economic, regulatory and operational constraints are challenges that hindered the performance of the company during the period under review.

He said, “the country is in the midst of macro-economic head winds; oil prices fell from over $108.40 per barrel in May 2014 to $52.85 per barrel in April 2017, resulting in severe downward pressure on the naira as the naira devaluated from about N220 to over N400 against the US dollar at the parallel market over the same period. “In addition to this, Nigeria continues to have one of the highest rate of infl ation with a year on year increase in the price of goods and services of 18.72% as at January 2017, a metric which Kaduna Electric must bear without a transfer of a burden to customers as a result of the regulated pricing in the form of tariff .

“Other challenges faced by the company since our taking over includes unfulfi lled promises made to prospective investors during the bidding process, regulatory interference, non-cost refl ective tariff , MDAs debt, capital expenditure limits, low electricity generation, failure of NERC to implement subsidy through the administration of power consumer assistance fund, non-availability of low interest credit facilities and Kaduna Electric promises effi cient power delivery engineers have already begun repair of the aircraft,” said Iwarah. Meanwhile, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) said the two aircraft would be re-certifi ed before they return to the skies. “Th e incident has been reported to NCAA. We are looking into it.

However, the two aircraft will have to be repaired and re-certifi ed by the authority before they can return to service,” said the spokesman for NCAA, Mr. Sam Adurogboye in a text message sent to newsmen. By Ime Akpan Lagos Th e winglet of Air Peace aircraft marked 5N-BQR collided with the winglet of a stationary aircraft marked 5N-BQP belonging to the airline and parked at the general aviation terminal in Lagos. Confi rming the incident, the airline’s spokesman, Mr. Christian Iwarah, said the two aircraft involved had been grounded for checks, repair and proper investigation of the incident. He said the aircraft was being towed to the ramp at the general aviation terminal in Lagos when it rammed into the winglet of another immobile aircraft owned by Air Peace. “We confi rm that at about 6.15am today (Th ursday), the winglet of our B737 aircraft with registration mark 5N-BQR, which was being towed within the very limited space at the ramp of the Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos to position for departure, had a partial contact with the stabiliser of another of our B737 aircraft with registration mark 5N-BQP. frequent government intervention in the electricity market,” the board chairman added. Despite the numerous challenges facing the Company, Alh Yusuf Hamisu Abubakar announced that Kaduna Electric is being re-positioned for improved performance. He enumerated some of the achievements recorded by Kaduna Electric during the period under review to include the stabilization of the distribution network operations, increasing the distribution capacity by over 1500MVA, supply and installation of 25,000 smart meters and expansion of the network to underserved areas in the company’s franchise area. Managing Director/Chief Executive Offi cer of the company, Engr. Garba Haruna in his speech, assured the shareholders that, in spite of the regulatory, network disruption and liquidity risks which the company has to contend with, Kaduna Electric has commenced the mapping of the 33KV, 11KV and the LT networks which has so far yielded positive result. According to him, “the networks mapping has provided clarity of the actual company’s network, while also increasing customers’ population from less than 300,000 to about 435,000 presently in the system. At conclusion of the programme in 2017, we hope to achieve customers’ enumeration and capturing of about 750,000 while making consistent growth to about 1,000,000 by 2018.”

Leave a Reply