Many Nigerians don’t know their right as electricity users – NERC

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission challenged Nigerians to be familiar with their rights and demanded that their rights be met by the service providers.

This was disclosed by the NERC’s Commissioner for Customer Affairs, Aisha Mahmoud, in Osogbo on Thursday while speaking with journalists at a 3-day Customer Complaints Resolution Town Hall Meeting organised by the Commission.

Mahmoud said the meeting was organised to address complaints from customers and noted that it would also enable the Commission to have feedback from the customers.

According to her, many Nigerians were unaware of their rights as electricity customers, even though they were listed on the Commission’s website, adding that the agency would continue to sensitise them to ensure that service providers fulfil obligations.

Mahmoud said, “We are here to listen to customers, listen to their complaints, and have those complaints resolved on the spot.

“So we are here for three days just to listen to whatever customers have to say regarding the electricity industry. Customers will have a lot of concerns, and we thought instead of just sitting in Abuja and waiting for them to come and complain, why not just go to them and get those complaints resolved?

“That is what we have been doing, and I think for this year, this should be like the 7th or 6th location that we have been to. The second reason we are here is to educate them (customers) on what we think they should know regarding their rights and obligations.

“We do know that most Nigerians don’t know their rights, even though they have a lot of rights, because we keep telling customers that when they pay for electricity, they are not just paying for electricity, but they are also paying for services.

“So they should demand their services be rendered to them. So they don’t know about these rights. We have them among all these beautiful regulations and others on our website, which Nigerians are mostly not aware of. So, we are here just to inform them that you have this right, and you should insist that services be provided to you.”

The Punch