CBN lauds Ikeja Disco, pledges funds for its metering project

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has assured Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company (IKEDC) that it would provide funds for the Phase One of its metering project.

The Director of Development Finance, CBN, Yila Yusuf, who gave the assurance during a monitoring and evaluation tour of IKEDC facilities on Thursday in Ikeja, Lagos, expressed satisfaction with the projects executed with funds earlier disbursed.

“Let me say that Ikeja Electricity is very innovative; we have followed some of the things you have done, especially providing electricity upward of 20 hours with different prices, among others.

“I think that’s the only way you can ensure that you run the DISCO well. I look at all the performance numbers, month by month and you have done excellently well, to be honest compared to the others.

“We will continue to task you as you go to Phase One from the Phase Zero metering.

“And we look forward to providing the requisite funding for that intervention, and we believe it will go a long way in ensuring that the market is not only liquid but electricity gets to consumers,” he said.

Yusuf promised that the apex bank would craft interventions that would sort out some of the challenges with the energy sector.

He noted that the bank, as part of its development finance effort, disbursed N8.83 trillion to different sectors, adding that 24 per cent of the funds went to the energy sector.

He also said energy, which was a vibrant sector, was important for development and without energy (electricity), no country could grow on the path of sustainable development.

Earlier, The Chief Executive Officer of Ikeja Disco, Mrs Folake Soetan, urged the CBN team to fast tract its intervention for the company.

“The projects that we have executed so far were for 2021, and we are already in Q2 2022. So, in order to effectively execute the projects that we planned for 2022, we once again require your support as we have always done.

“For the National mass Metering Initiative, Phase Zero, for Ikeja Electric, we executed on time, we completed the number of metering that was required of us and we are very eager to start Phase One.

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“So, I’m appealing once again for your support in helping us fast track that process. Opex (Operational Expenditure) is very key at this time,” Soetan said.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the CBN team, on a three-day monitoring and evaluation tour of projects that the apex funded through Deposit Money Banks in Lagos, also visited Eko Electricity Distribution Company as well as the Red and Blue Rail Line.

The CBN team also expressed satisfaction with the work so far done on the Red line project.

Yusuf said, “We are impressed with what we’ve seen here with the Lagos state government red line project.

“We’ve disbursed most of the funds, and from the briefings we’ve gotten, by the first quarter of 2023 this line will be running.

“Most of the work is already done; quite impressive. It’s a signature project and I look forward to riding on the line come Q1 2023,” he said.