The Kano Electricity Distribution Company reports that around 6,000 transformers were vandalised in Jigawa, Kano, and Katsina during the four-day countrywide outage.
This was disclosed at a town hall meeting with Katsina North stakeholders on Wednesday by Auwal Yusha’u, the regional manager for KEDCO.
According to him, transformer oil and cables were also taken in certain places.
“This situation is beyond KEDCO’s capacity to resolve alone,” he added. “In some locations, entire transformers were stolen by criminals. Even here in Katsina, a transformer was taken.”
“The reality is that, without functional transformers, KEDCO cannot provide electricity to customers,” Mr Yusha added.
He asked locals to organise committees to keep an eye on any questionable activities near transformers in their neighbourhoods.
He advised customers to report transformer or electricity supply issues to the nearest KEDCO office rather than relying on unqualified individuals.
“In Katsina North, we have 14 feeders supplying electricity and five substations, each with an assigned controller.
“We also have two substations without controllers. Our coverage area includes Katsina town, Jibia, Batsari, Batagarawa, Kaita, and Rimi local government areas.
“In this zone, we have 50,119 registered customers. We bill N425 million monthly, but we collect only N152 million. Just imagine the gap between the amount billed and what we actually collect every month,” said Mr Yusha.
The KEDCO regional manager also mentioned that some customers consistently paid their bills.
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“As of last month, we had 32,591 willing payers. This means we collect only 35 per cent of what we bill. Our response efficiency stands at 69 per cent.
“Our biggest challenge is vandalism. We need the support of all stakeholders to address this problem.
“During the four-day blackout, KEDCO lost billions of naira, and our transformers were heavily vandalised,” Mr Yusha stated.
