NERC Receives 47,127 Consumers’ Complaints In Three Months

From Left: Former Vice Chancellor, Prof. Joseph Ajienka, Chairman, Society of Petroleum Engineers, Nigeria Council, George Kalu, and former Presidential Adviser on Petroleum Resources, Dr Emmanuel Egboga, at the 5th Oloibiri Lecture Series and Energy Forum, in Abuja recently

The Nigeria Electricity
Regulatory Commission (NERC) has disclosed that consumers across the nation made 47,127 complaints against the eleven electricity distribution companies (DISCOs in the country within the last quarter of last year alone.
The acting Chief Executive Officer  of NERC, Dr Anthony Akah, was quoted to have made the disclosure while declaring open a training workshop on customer complaints handling organized for staff of the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) at Keffi, Nassarawa State.
Akah, who charged the DISCOs to find ways of bringing to the bearest minimum the high rate of complaints by their customers, noted that the high number of complaints was an obvious indication of customers’ increasing dissatisfaction with the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI).
The Head of Public Affairs Department, Dr Usman Abba Arabi, in his statement, quoted the acting Chairman of NERC as saying that, “it is critical that DISCOs should be alive to their duties of prompt resolution of complaints to ensure improved customer service satisfaction”.
According to him, doing so, would not only win the confidence of the customers for their service provider but would also enable customers’ benefit from gains of the privatisation of the power sector.
The NERC boss stated that, the commission in line with its enabling act, had put in place the necessary guidelines and regulations to assist the service providers in rendering efficient and effective service to their customers.
Akah, however, launded AEDC management for organizing the training for its staff and advised participants to see the training as an opportunity to be better equipped in the discharge of their duties.
The Tide reports that participants were taken through relevant regulations pertaining to customer complaints handling.

Chris Oluoh