DisCos Apologise To Nigerians Over Power Outages

Electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos) have apologised to Nigerians over persistent electricity shortages across the country, acknowledging the hardship caused by weeks of prolonged blackouts.

The apology comes amid growing frustration over inadequate electricity supply, with households and businesses struggling to cope with prolonged outages in recent weeks.

Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED), Sunday Oduntan, tendered the apology on Monday during an appearance on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily.

“I’d like to first of all start by apologising to Nigerians. Apology is needed; it is essential because Nigerians have been taken through this problem over the past few weeks,” he said.

Oduntan also criticised what he described as a return to the blame game among operators in the electricity sector, recalling that similar disagreements between stakeholders had characterised the industry between 2016 and 2019.

He said distribution companies, transmission operators, generation companies and gas suppliers had previously blamed one another for poor electricity supply instead of addressing the underlying problems.

“Our major problem is that we have started that very wrong route that we went through between 2016 and 2019. What is that? Blame game.

“Part of what happened at that time is that people will blame the DisCos, DisCos will blame TCN, TCN will blame GenCos, GenCos will blame the gas suppliers, and gas suppliers will blame payment issues. We have returned to that, and I think there is a need to arrest that,” he said.