On Monday, the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) announced its intention to disconnect electricity services to the Presidential Villa and 86 Federal Government Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) due to outstanding debts totaling N47.195 billion as of December 2023.
Among the affected MDAs are the Chief of Defence Staff – Barracks and Military Formations owing N12 billion, FCT Ministry, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of State Petroleum, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Information, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Agriculture, Federal Inland Revenue Service, CBN governor, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Budget and Planning, Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Ministry of Interior, Head ECOWAS, and Ministry of Transport, among others.
AEDC issued a 10-day notice to the affected MDAs, urging them to settle their outstanding debts amounting to N47.1 billion or face disconnection. The company stated that previous attempts to collect these overdue payments had not yielded satisfactory results.
The firm set the disconnection deadline for Wednesday, February 28, 2024, and emphasized the urgency for MDAs to fulfill their financial obligations before the stipulated date.
In 2019, Federal Executive Council had approved the inclusion of the presidential villa in the eligible customer policy to ensure uninterrupted power supply. The move aimed to enhance electricity supply and distribution in the country, allowing customers to directly purchase power from electricity generation companies (GenCos). The approval was part of the Distribution Expansion Programme to utilize unutilized 2000 megawatts from GenCos for targeted metered customers.
Hakeem Bello, special adviser on communications to the then Minister of Power, Babatunde Fashola, explained that the Distribution Expansion Programme, executed by Dextron Engineering Limited, had a completion period of six months. The program involved North-South Power Company Limited procuring dedicated power supply to the Villa from the National Grid, with the AEDC expressing interest in ensuring the project’s success.
