NBS: 3.45 million Nigerians metered

As of Q4 2017, only 46.16% equivalent to 3.45 million consumers of the total 7.48 million power consumers in Nigeria were metered, according to a power sector report compiled by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The NBS report, Power Sector Report: Energy Generated and Sent Out and Consumed and Load Allocation, metering data indicates that the DisCo with the highest percentage of customer metered, with 69.49% recorded, was Benin DisCo.

In the second position is Eko DisCo with 60.73%, followed by Ikeja DisCo with 55.95%.

While Yola and Enugu DisCos recorded the least percentage of customers metered with 23.61% and 27.72% recorded respectively.

With regards to power generation statistics, the stats reflected that a total average of 94,627MWh of energy was generated daily by power stations.

Daily energy generation attained a peak of 105,152MWh on the 8th of December 2017. Thermal stations generated 84,026MWh of this, while the hydropower stations generated 21,126MWh.

However, the lowest daily energy generation, 73,246MWh, was attained on 18 October 2017 as thermal stations generated 55,941MWh of this while the hydropower stations generated the remaining 17,305MWh.

Fuel queues: Station manager arrested for products’ diversion

The Nigerian Nationsal Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has said that a petrol station manager has been arrested by the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps for diverting 26,000 litres of petrol from New Nyanya to another location in Akwanga, Nasarawa State.

The Corporation made this known in a statement signed the the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division of NNPC , Ndu Ughamadu, adding that an official of the NSCDC, Yusuf O. Ayinde, a Chief Superintendent of the Corps, the manager with Lamido Petroleum, New Nyanya, Nasarawa State, Mr. Kasim Lamido, took delivery of 40,000 litres of petrol meant for his station but discharged only 13, 3000 litres, from one out of the three compartments in the truck and diverted the remaining 26,000litres to a station in Akwanga, where it would be sold at a higher price.

The suspect would be charged to court by the Civil Defence Corps after ongoing investigation.

The latest arrest validates NNPC’s position that the activities of a potent petroleum products smuggling and diversion syndicate contributed immensely to the shortage being experienced in some cities and which posed a challenge to the efforts by the Corporation to sanitize the fuel supply and distribution chain across the country.

The corporation urged motorists not to engage in panic buying as it was working in collaboration with major stakeholders to eliminate the distribution hiccups that have led to the emergence of fuel queues in some parts of the country.

Motorists are advised to report any marketer selling above N145 per litre of petrol or hoarding products to the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) which is statutorily empowered to deal with such issues.