Kogi State government has paid N71.7 million debt its ministries and agencies have been owing the PHCN in the past seven years.
The Lokoja Business District of the PHCN, Mr Abdulganiyu Isah who disclosed this to newsmen in Lokoja on Wednesday said that the amount was paid in three installments between March and April this year.
He said that the government action had reduced the amount being owed the organisation by consumers in the district to over N900 million.
Isa said that the Nigeria Army, police and the SSS are owing the PHCN N100 million, N25 million and N4.8 million respectively, urging them to pay up.
The Manager also urged other consumers in the district to pay their debt, saying that the huge debt, inadequate generation and capacity limitation both in transmission and distribution had been militating against efforts to boost power supply to residents.
He said that 500 units of 50 KVA transformers had been delivered to the office , saying that the organisation would soon start installing the transformers to boost electricity supply to all parts of the state.
Isa said that the PHCN had created more service centres in the city as part of efforts to ensure prompt response to customers’ complaints.
He said that many of the transformers in Lokoja were overloaded and appealed to the state government to come to the aid of the organisation by donating more 500 kva transformers .
The Manager also stated that the organisation was not a party to the collection of money by residents for the purchase or installation of transformers and urged consumers to cooperate by reporting any erring official.
On the problems of crazy bills and low current of power supply being experience in some parts of the Lokoja, the Manager stated that this will become a thing of the past as soon as work is completed on the new injection power station at Zango Daji area in Lokoja.
The Chairman of the Consumers Forum, Mr Samuel Maiyaki in his address urged the organisation to improve on its services to the people, saying that crazy bills and epileptic power supply to consumers were major factors responsible for non-payment of electricity bills.
Consumers who spoke at the stakeholders meeting had raised issues bordering on por power supply , crazy bills and extortion by official of PHCN, calling for urgent solution to all these.
