NERC Establishes 25 Offices Across the Country to Address Consumers’ Complaints
Loading ...By Yakubu Salisu A, Kano
The National Electricity Regulatory Commission, (NERC) has established 25 forum offices across the country designed to address consumers’ complaints so as to ensure their satisfaction.
Speaking during an Electricity consumers town hall meeting held in Kano on Thursday. The vice chairman of the commission Sanusi Garba said that the EPSR ACT of 2005 empowers NERC, as a regulatory agent in the electricity sector to protect consumer’s interest, deal with consumers complaints, educate consumers on their right as well as involve consumers in the regulatory process for efficiency.
Garba who was represented by the commissioner, consumer affairs Dr. Moses Arigu said, “for nearly 11 years of existence as a commission, we have set abou these objectives with vigour and today’s event is part of the fruitful outcome of our unrelenting efforts”
The town hall meeting theme: promoting electricity consumers awareness in the power sector is a platform designed to educate electricity consumers on their right and obligations, health and safety consumers’ complaints, redress mechanism, energy conservation and other lingering issues that consumers might be facing.
The Chairman noted that the basic satisfaction for electricity consumers in the country, is quality and reliability of services, prompt complaint handling, accuracy of bills, and easy lament mechanism, adding that if these are perceived by the customers to be unsatisfactory, customers needs a clear and affective path to seek and find redress.
“An important pillar of this mechanism is the forum office whose primary responsibility is to hear appeals of cases not resolved by the Disco’s CCU or Customer not happy with the resolution of the Disco’s CCU. So far, the commission has established 25 forum offices across the country”
The commission also seeks to build and maintain cordial relationships with other agencies in an effort to enlighten consumers. Through collaboration with some agencies such as National Orientation Agency (NOA) and Consumer Protection Council (CPC) the commission hopes to continue to reach out to sensitize customers and the general public on electricity regulatory issues that concerns them.
In his remarks, the Chairman on house committee on power represented by Honorable Iboro Ekanem decried the high rate of vandalization of electricity equipments in the country which has posed great danger in regular electricity supply in the country.
Ekanem advised electricity consumers to use the forum officees established to lay their complaints in order to address such issues rather than engaging in sharp practices.
He called on the Discos to ensure stable Power supply with affordable and clear bills for a better understanding for the development of the sector.
