The management of Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) has urged residents of Niger State to pay their monthly electricity bills promptly, thereby enhancing service delivery to the people by the company.

Managing Director of AEDC, Engineer Chichioke Okwuokenye, made the call in his keynote address during the media parley organised for journalists in Niger State.

Chichioke lamented that the poor attitude of people towards paying their bills has seriously crippled revenue generation in the Niger Zone.

He revealed that the federal government privatised electricity because the sector was in poor shape and underfunded.

Chichioke, who explained that electricity is essential, stressed that AEDC does not fix tariffs, that the regulator reviews and decides the best tariff for the economy so that electricity would not become an elite commodity.

He further hinted that the organisation has installed 6,150 pre-pay meters across Niger State, adding that the company had metered all the transformers in the state.

Regarding claims of billing customers unnecessarily, he noted that each transformer has a reference to the energy estimates of what customers within the location have consumed, pending when the customers will be provided with a meter.

“No investor will put money where there is no value to be gotten,” the MD said.

Okwoukenye, who took over the leadership of the company in 2024, disclosed that they had a roadmap that shows them all the various problems, noting that solutions will not happen overnight, but rather they have to happen in a phased approach.

MD said, “Niger Zone received monthly energy of N3.6 nillion, though the target is N2.5 billion,” adding that the company hardly recovers the entire target due to poor payment of bills by customers, stressing that “the sector is operating at a lost.”

Earlier in his submission, the Chief Business Officer of AEDC Niger Zone, Engineer Dr. Samuel Odekina, raised concerns that the impact of non-payment of electricity bills by customers is catastrophic, leading to the crippling of its revenue base, as well as the inability to invest in the company’s infrastructure.

Odekina disclosed that people attribute economic hardship as a reason for not paying for electricity, adding that even customers who can afford to pay still refuse to do so.

“How would a company like ours survive without customers’ willingness to pay their electricity bill?”

He appealed to media practitioners to sensitise the populace that energy is not free.

Also speaking, the Chief Regulatory and Efficiency Officer, Engineer Emmanuel Ogwuche, urged the media to assist AEDC by educating the public on power reforms.

The interactive session was well attended by electronic and print media outlets in the state.