IBEDC: Has Electricity Privatisation Failed Nigerians? My Community’s Eight-Month Transformer Ordeal Raises Serious Questions
When we had the National Electric Power Authority (NEPA), many Nigerians believed that government-managed electricity services were synonymous with inefficiency, poor service delivery and a lack of accountability. We hoped that privatising the power sector would change that narrative by introducing competition, professionalism and improved service delivery.
However, years after Nigeria embarked on electricity sector reforms, one troubling question remains: Did we privatise electricity distribution to improve efficiency, or did we simply transfer the old problems of NEPA into private hands?
Today, we have electricity distribution companies (DisCos), including the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC), which serves customers across several states. Yet, from my personal experience, the inefficiencies that Nigerians associated with the old NEPA system appear to persist.
Let me share what happened in my community.
Eight Months to Repair a Transformer—Only for It to Fail Again
I live in Alaro, Sango, Ibadan, Oyo State. Sometime last year, one phase of our community's transformer developed a fault and required repairs. IBEDC took the transformer to its repair facility in Eleyele, Ibadan.
What should have been a straightforward repair process dragged on for approximately eight months.
After all that waiting, the transformer was eventually returned to the community. Unfortunately, we enjoyed its service for only about three months before it developed another fault—the same fault it had reportedly been taken away to repair.
Naturally, this raised serious concerns. After making enquiries from professionals in the electricity sector, I was informed that such a recurrence could indicate that the repairs had not been carried out to the required technical specifications and quality standards.
Of course, a proper technical assessment would be necessary to establish the actual cause of the failure. Nevertheless, the circumstances demand answers.
Who should be held accountable for this experience? Will anyone within the technical department be questioned over the quality of the repairs? Will there be an investigation into why a transformer spent eight months away for repairs only to fail again within three months?
Or will the community simply be expected to endure another round of darkness and uncertainty?
Why Should the Community Pay Again?
When I approached IBEDC representatives, I was advised that we should consider allowing them to recommend a private company to repair the transformer.
This suggestion raises an important question: Why should a community have to consider paying a private contractor to repair electricity infrastructure that belongs to the distribution company responsible for supplying its electricity?
If the community eventually pays for the repairs, what happens afterwards? Will IBEDC reimburse the residents? Will the community receive any compensation for the additional financial burden? Or will residents simply be expected to pay again while continuing to settle their electricity bills?
These are not unreasonable questions. They concern accountability, consumer rights and the responsibilities of electricity distribution companies.
In fact, IBEDC's published customer rights explicitly state that electricity consumers are not responsible for buying, replacing or repairing transformers, electricity poles and related distribution equipment.
NERC also confirms that customers should not be required to pay for repairs or replacements of a DisCo's assets unless the customers are proven to have wilfully damaged those assets.
This raises a fundamental issue: if the regulator's rules are clear, why should communities feel pressured to shoulder these costs?
What Exactly Went Wrong With Privatisation?
I understand that electricity distribution involves complex technical and financial challenges. However, such challenges cannot become a permanent excuse for prolonged delays, repeated equipment failures and poor accountability.
I was informed that a private power company or qualified technician could potentially complete the transformer repairs in less than a month. If that assessment proves accurate, it makes the eight-month delay even more difficult to justify.
The question is not whether private companies are automatically better than public institutions. Rather, it is whether IBEDC and other DisCos are delivering the efficiency, professionalism and accountability that Nigerians expected from electricity sector reform.
Nigeria's electricity regulator, NERC, has established performance-monitoring measures intended to strengthen operational performance, management accountability and customer satisfaction. The challenge is ensuring that these standards translate into meaningful improvements in communities like ours.
Nigerians Deserve Answers
I believe IBEDC owes the affected community a clear explanation of what happened to our transformer, why the repair took eight months, why the same fault reportedly returned and what measures will prevent another recurrence.
The community also deserves clarity on who will bear the cost of any further repairs.
If the transformer belongs to IBEDC, its maintenance responsibilities should not casually be transferred to residents.
Nigerians did not support electricity sector reform merely to exchange one inefficient system for another. We expected better service, quicker responses and greater accountability.
If private electricity distribution companies continue to operate with the same shortcomings that defined the old NEPA era, then we must ask ourselves a difficult question:
What exactly has privatisation changed for the ordinary electricity consumer?
Until IBEDC and other DisCos demonstrate that private ownership translates into better service delivery, Nigerians will continue to question whether electricity sector reform has delivered on its promises.
The people of Alaro, Sango, Ibadan, deserve answers. And so do millions of other Nigerians who continue to pay for electricity services while bearing the consequences of an unreliable distribution system.
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