Daily Watch – DisCos doubt FG’s claim on power waste, Inflation drops slightly
18th February 2019
Inflation dropped to 11.37 percent in January 2019. The NBS report released Friday recorded a 0.07 percentage point decline on the 11.44 percent which the country recorded in December 2018. On a month-on-month basis, the index increased by 0.74 per cent in January 2019, the same rate as was recorded in December 2018. According to the report, the urban inflation rate increased by 11.66 percent year-on-year in January 2019 from 11.73 percent recorded in December 2018. Rural inflation rate increased by 11.11 percent in January 2019 from 11.18 percent in December 2018.
The NCC has fined the four major telecommunications companies, MTN, Airtel, Glo, and 9mobile a total of ₦74 million for various lapses, including promotions and SIM card registration that contravene the rules and regulations of the commission. Among the infractions are the routing of a minimum of 10 percent of interconnect traffic through interconnect exchange licensees; quality of service; approval for promotions and advertisements; and SIM registration in a controlled environment, among others, which were listed by the regulator in 2018 as part of the noncompliance by the network providers.
Electricity distribution companies have said that the FG’s continuous claim that about 2,000MW of electricity had been stranded for over one year is difficult to comprehend. In June 2018, the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, declared that about 2,000MW of electricity produced by power generation companies had been left stranded, as Discos lacked the capacity to take all the generated electricity. To effectively utilise the stranded power, the government introduced the Eligible Customer Policy to empower power consumers to buy electricity directly from GenCos instead of waiting to be supplied power by the DisCos. However, no one has been fully licensed to enjoy the initiative. Speaking on behalf of the Discos, the Deputy Managing Director, Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company, John Ayodele, wondered if there was any stranded 2,000MW of electricity anywhere in Nigeria. Ayodele argued that he had been studying the country’s power broadcast on a daily basis and had yet to see such quantum of electricity staying idle without being transmitted or distributed as required.
Transcorp has announced its audited results for the year ended 31 December 2018, with a 94% growth in Profit After Tax of ₦20.6 billion in 2018 compared to ₦10.6 billion in the prior year. The Group recorded an unparalleled improvement within the year as turnover grew by 30% to ₦104.2 billion. Profit Before Tax increased to ₦22.4 billion from ₦12.3 billion in 2017, depicting an 82% year on year growth. CEO, Valentine Ozigbo said that the group was able to cut down on its losses from Forex arising from financing activities by 30% year-on-year because of the relatively stable exchange rate during the fiscal year-ended 2018.