Power Outage: NERC to Unveil App for Customers’ Complaints

The National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) said it would within the next few weeks roll out an outage reporting app to enable its customers report power supply situation particularly outage in their area.

The Vice Chairman of the NERC, Dr. Musiliu Oseni disclosed this yesterday in Abeokuta, Ogun State, during the inauguration of the commission’s forum office in the state.

The inauguration of the office, which would serve customers of the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC), was the 34th of such in Nigeria.

Oseni, who said the app would definitely integrate the system of the distribution company, added that the pilot phase of the app would start in Abuja.

He said: “Already, the app can be downloaded from the Google Play and Apple Store. For the pilot stage, we will be rolling it out and make it available to customers in Abuja to enable them make complaints if there is an outage.

“Immediately, they do, that alert will be triggered at the distribution company’s end. After the pilot stage, we will now roll it out nation-wide so that customers of IBEDC will be able to benefit from the app.

“The commission is also leveraging on technology so that if you go to your IBEDC and they cannot solve your complaints, you can reach NERC through technology.

“If you come to the forum, they will look at your case, based on the rules and regulations that had been put in place by the commission and in line with the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as well as Electrical Sector Reform Act.”

Oseni said the desire of NERC was to ensure that power supply in the country was stable and delivered to customers’ satisfaction.

“We are all customers and we are all involved. It is in our interest the services are well delivered to satisfaction. The Commission is desired to ensure that we operate and perform our regulatory oversight functions in line with international best practice and without discrimination. It is part of these aspirations that this particular forum office is being inaugurated today so that the customer can have the choice.

“Whenever they go to their supplier, which is the electricity distribution companies and feel that their complaints are not treated to their satisfaction, they have the choice to come to the forum office and lodge their complaints.

“Looking at it today, the electricity sector is facing a lot of challenges. Some of these challenges are not within the control of these utility providers, but they are systemic problems that require some efforts of the policy makers, the regulatory side, customers and all well-meaning Nigerians so that we can achieve the desire of having electricity supply 24/7.

“We shall get there one day; it requires a lot work and with sincerity of purpose from the side of all the players including customers.”

According to the NERC vice Chairman, members of the forum, were carefully selected from the community, based on their integrity and professional competence

Members of the forum are the Representative of the Nigeria Society of Engineers (NSE), Mr. Adesanya Omoniyi; representative of the Manufacturer Association of Nigeria (MAN), Mr. Michael Obiora; representative of the Non- governmental Organisation, Mr. Kabiru Adisa; representative of Nigeria Association Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mining and Agriculture (NACCIMA), Mr. Adesanya Albert and representative of the Federal Competition/Consumer Protection Commission, Dr. Oluwatoyin Olatunde

Oseni said a staff of the NERC, Mr. Adeola Dhabi, would serve as the Secretary of the forum.