The International Monetary Fund, IMF, has warned that Nigeria is experiencing a deepening economic crisis.

IMF expressed concern that the stagnant per-capita growth, widespread poverty, and severe food insecurity have further intensified the persistent cost-of-living crisis in Nigeria.

This was contained in its recently published report titled ‘Review of Nigeria’s Post Financing Assessment by the IMF Executive Board.’

In line with the report, the inadequate collection of revenue has impeded the delivery of services and the allocation of resources towards public investment.

According to the report, the observed inflation rate for October stood at 27 percent compared to the same period last year (with food inflation at 32 percent).

The growth was attributed to the removal of fuel subsidies, the depreciation of the exchange rate, and the negative impact on agricultural production in the country.

The report read in part, “Nigeria faces a difficult external environment and wide-ranging domestic challenges. External financing (market and official) is scarce, and global food prices have surged, reflecting the repercussions of conflict and geo-economic fragmentation.

“Per-capita growth in Nigeria has stalled, poverty and food insecurity are high, exacerbating the cost-of-living crisis. Low reserves and very limited fiscal space constrain the authorities’ option space. Against this backdrop, the authorities’ focus on restoring macroeconomic stability and creating conditions for sustained, high and inclusive growth is appropriate.”

In the midst of Nigeria’s ongoing economic challenges, the report highlighted that on January 12, 2024, the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund completed an evaluation of post financing and approved the Staff Appraisal without delay.

Additionally, it emphasized that Nigeria possesses sufficient capability to repay its debts to the IMF.

[DailyPost]

Federal civil servants in about 90 Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) are yet to receive their January salaries, Daily Trust can report.

The affected MDAs include the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation (OHoCSF), the Ministry of Information and National Orientation, the Ministry of Education, the National Population Commission, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the Voice of Nigeria, among others.

In separate interviews with Daily Trust and Premium Times, the workers lamented and said their December 2023 salary delay experience ought not to have been repeated.

“As I am talking to you, myself and three of my colleagues have not been paid. The situation is not fair not with the current situation of the daily increment of prices of food items and other things in the country,” one of the workers said.

Others alleged that the delay in the payment of their salaries was an indication that  the government was insensitive to the sufferings of the masses.

The delay in the December salary payment had been attributed to technical issues relating to upload and harmonization of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).

The delay in the payment of January salaries was blamed on the technical glitch on the Government Integrated Financial Management System (GIFMIS) platform by the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF).

GIFMIS is an IT-based system for budget management and accounting put in place by the federal government to improve public expenditure management processes and enhance greater accountability and transparency across ministries and agencies.

A January 31 memo titled, ‘Delay in the Payment of January 2024 Salary’, from the bursary department of the National Mathematics Centre, Abuja, to all its staff, signed by the acting bursar, Pius Ukwah, said, “We wish to inform you that January 2024 salaries will be delayed beyond normal.

“As of today, the OAGF is still working on finalising the 2024 appropriation on the GIFMIS platform and as a result, the personnel warrant for January is yet to be released”.

The memo, which copied the Director/CE, the Registrar and pasted on all notice boards, stated further, “The same situation applies to all MDAs and not just the centre. We regret the inconvenience caused by this delay.”

In Ekiti State, some of the workers who spoke with Premium Times included staff of the Federal University, Oye Ekiti (FUOYE), Federal Polytechnic, Ado Ekiti; Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN); National Orientation Agency (NOA), and Federal Ministry of Information, among others.

An official of FUOYE, Wole Balogun, said with the hardship being faced by the people, it was inconceivable that salaries could be delayed longer than necessary.

Balogun, who blamed the delay on an unnecessary bureaucratic bottleneck associated with the payment platforms, urged the federal government to expedite action on the payment, “because the situation is becoming unbearable.”

A staffer of the Federal Polytechnic, Ado Ekiti, Folashade Daramola, also lamented the delay. She noted that many members of staff have loan obligations that they ought to have paid as at when due, which have remained pending.

Also, Owoeye Ilesanmi, who is a staffer of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), said that in addition to delay in the payment of January salary, the federal government has reneged on the payment of the wage award.

In Katsina State, many federal workers spoken to also said they had not been paid their salary and palliatives support from the government.

Some of the affected workers told Premium Time that the delay was affecting their work schedule, as they now find it difficult to go to work, especially those living in areas far from their offices.

“I work in a department that requires me to go to the office every day, but I’ve finished my savings and I’m finding it difficult to travel to Dutsin Ma to undertake my responsibility,” Faruk (surname withheld), who is an engineer with the department of Physical Planning and Works at the Federal University, Dutsin Ma, said.

Another non-academic worker of the Federal Polytechnic, Daura, who asked not to be named for fear of victimisation, said the delay in salary payment was affecting her activities, especially because she travelled daily from Katsina to Daura.

An official of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) in Edo State, Jude Abugu, described the delay in payment of salaries as commonplace in recent months.

A memo from the Accountant-General’s Office said work was ongoing towards finalising the 2024 budget on the GIFMIS platform.

When contacted last night, the Director of Press and Public Relations at the OAGF, Bawa Mokwa, told Daily Trust that about 90 offices across the MDAs were affected, including some universities and polytechnics.

He, however, said many of the workers had started receiving their salaries on Thursday; while others did on Friday and at the weekend.

“The issue was attributed to issue of uploading the 2024 budget and making it current because the salary was paid from the 2024 budget instead of the tradition where they overlap the budget,” he explained.

“All has been finalized on Friday. They are supposed to have started getting since yesterday (Saturday). If they don’t get, maybe it is from the banks, from tomorrow (Monday) morning, definitely they will get it”.

A top official in the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, who insisted on not being named, said the delay in salary payment was not a punishment for workers.

He confirmed receiving his salary, but said he was aware that some of his “superior officers and some junior workers are yet to receive theirs.”

 [DailyTrust]

Going by the latest report by the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation (OAuGF), many Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDA) violated extant laws and spent billions of naira that were not appropriated in 2020.

The OAuGF gave the detailed account of the infractions two years after its last report.

Section 80 (2) of the 1999 Constitution as amended States that “No moneys shall be withdrawn from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation except to meet expenditure that is charged upon the fund by this Constitution or where the issue of those moneys has been authorised by an Appropriation Act, Supplementary Appropriation Act or an Act passed in pursuance of section 81 of this Constitution”.

Also, Section 80(3) states that “No moneys shall be withdrawn from any public fund of the Federation, other than the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation, unless the issue of those moneys has been authorised by an Act of the National Assembly”.

The 2020 Audited Report of government finances dated November 30, 2023, submitted to the National Assembly contained revelations of unbudgeted expenditure and unremitted revenue to government coffers in the 2020 financial year.

Constitutionally, the 2020 Auditor-General’s report ought to have been submitted to the National Assembly in 2021. It was submitted via a letter referenced AuGF/AR.2020/01 dated November 30, 2023.

The report contained 26 audit queries issued to the OAuGF detailing different infractions and abuse of the financial regulations and treasury circulars; 27 queries against the Security and Exchange Commission and 31 audit queries against the Ministry of Labour & Employment.

Last year, The Nation reported that the delay in the appointment of a substantive Auditor-General of the Federation was delaying the submission of an audited report of government finances to the National Assembly as the director over-seeing the office cannot sign any final audit report.

On October 21, 2023, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu appointed Shaakaa Chira as the substantive Auditor-General

In its Report, the said that 28 MDAs, including some Federal Pay Offices, Office of the Surveyor-General of the Federation, Airforce Institute of a technology among others had negative balances of cash and cash equivalents amounting to N13,955,069,757,335.20.

The report said: “The amount was presented in the Consolidated Statement of Financial Position as Current Portion of Borrowings/Cash & Cash Equivalent under Current Liabilities.

“There was no further information in the notes to the FGN CFS on what gave rise to the negative cash and cash equivalents recognised by the twenty eight MDA.

“The above anomalies could be attributed to weaknesses in the internal control system surrounding the consolidation process at the OAuGF.”

The report also indicted about 256 MDAs for engaging in extra budgetary expenditure amounting to N284, 316,170,124.34 in 2020, saying “the total expenditure disclosed for the affected MDA was N361,273,553,365.49, against the approved budget of N76,957,383,241.15, hence the extra budgetary expenditure.

According to the report, the sources of the extra spending were neither disclosed, nor the evidence of supplementary appropriation or approved virement provided, attributing it to failure of the accounting officers of the affected MDA to ensure that proper budgetary and accounting systems are established and maintained to enhance internal control, accountability and transparency.

It also attribute it to lack of due diligence from the Accountant-General of the Federation in ensuring that the release of the overhead costs was limited to approved estimates.

The accountant-general said in his management response to the issue that “GIFMIS is budget based software; it could not allow payments without a budget. The MDAs with waivers to spend 75 per cent of their revenue were allowed to add whatever they spent as a supplementary budget. Several of the affected MDAs have grants or aid, these is to be classified as supplementary budget. Those, with AIE, revenue & grants sources have had their budgets adjusted as supplementary budgets.

Another 18 MDAs incurred an overhead expenditure of N129,348,691,232.01 which were not supportes by budgetary provision as required by extant regulations, but the accountant-general, in a management response contained in the report said the MDAs involve ate “mostly those that had waivers to spend a percentage of their revenue to sustain themselves”.

The report said that 34 MDAs reported zero overhead expenditure despite having a total budget of N6,965, 100,151.00, adding that “no additional information was disclosed to enable users understand how the MDA operated without overhead costs”.

The AuGF report reported an extra budgetary expenditure of N342.916 billion on employee benefits and subsidiaries above the appropriated amounts, adding that while N7.027.nillion was budgeted for Employees Benefit the total expenditure was N335.657 billion was spent.

It also said that the sum of N14, 284,446,488.75 was spent on subsidies without budgetary provisions.

 The report said that 72 MDAs exceeded their Employee benefits budget by N328,631,067,959.54 saying “the total expenditures of the 72 MDA were N335,657,780,939.50 while the total budget was 8’7,026,712,979.96, hence the reported extra budgetary expenditure.

The auditor-general reported that 106 MDAs exceeded  their personnel costs budget by N78,761,272,804.54, saying “the total expenditures of the 106 MDA was N882.90 billion, while the total budget was N804.14 billion

“No information was disclosed thereon in respect to the authorisation of the expenditure by way of either supplementary appropriation or virement upon which the personnel budget was exceeded.”

About N1.23 trillion was recognised as Intangible Assets for 659 MDAs without the schedule showing the classification and nature of the Intangible assets contrary to the provision of IPSAS 31 and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies, while there was no disclosure to enable the audit confirm which category of the intangible assets has finite or infinite life.

According to the report, a review of the consolidated statement of financial performance shows that the gain of N244 ,326,407.50 from disposal of assets was disclosed in both Note 24 and Consolidated Statement of Financial Performance as Gain or Loss on Disposal of PPE.

The AuGF stressed that out of a total of One hundred and ten (110) MDA that were circularised, only twenty did not respond, adding that the balances recognised in the FGN CFS against the unresponsive MDA amounted to N1.721 trillion.

The Consolidated Statement of Financial Position showed a negative Net Assets of N33.34 trillions as at December 31, 2020, adding that the accountant-general should provide justification for the negative net assets balance reported in the FGN CFS to the Public Accounts Committees (PAC) of the National Assembly.

[TheNation]

The General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, on Sunday, said that the socio-economic as well as security challenges confronting the country require spiritual solutions.

The spiritual leader noted that the nation’s political leaders appeared to have tried their best to seek solutions but that Nigeria urgently needed divine intervention.

Adeboye stated these when he met the Kaduna State Governor, Senator Uba Sani, at the Sir Kashim Ibrahim Government House, Kaduna, the state capital.

He said, “I am delighted to be here again. I was here about two years ago with the former governor. At that time I came to pray for some of my members who were kidnapped and were miraculously rescued. I came to encourage their families to let them know that all will be well.

“We, as a country, are blessed. We are blessed with people with great intelligence. We are blessed with all manner of resources and yet we have so many problems.

“It is not as if people in authority are not trying their best. They are doing as much as humanly possible and then we found out that when you have problems that are beyond human ability to solve them, you call on the Almighty. The reason we call Him the Almighty is because He has the power to solve all problems.

“So, we have been going round in our own little ways to support the efforts of all the various governments and parastatals to call on the Almighty to come to our aid because we need help. We need help and we need it urgently.”

In his response, Governor Sani said President Bola Tinubu needed the prayers and support of clerics like Adeboye to put the nation on the path of greatness.

He said,“We also believe that from the remarks you made just now, our country, at this critical time, requires the intervention from people like you who are tested and who have in the past intervened and helped us to find solutions to our problems. We believe you won’t be tired. We also need an intervention at this critical time.

“Many Nigerians are losing hope and they have been very cautious about the future but like I said, we are going through difficulties because of what happened in the past and right now we have a President who is determined and focused and ready to take the country to a greater height and I have no doubt, with your intervention and prayers, that our President will certainly get it right.

“So far, Mr President has taken some very important steps towards moving our country forward but most of these steps are things that might be difficult at this critical time because they are major reforms we need; both economic reforms, as well as social reforms.

“And looking at some of the things that happened in the past hoping to connect them, we need some reforms that might be painful at this critical time but I have no doubt that in the near future, Nigeria will be better for all of us by the grace of God.

“So, we will continue to seek your advice, your wisdom, your support and most importantly, your prayers. We thank you for coming to Kaduna and we will continue to consult you for advice and wisdom, thank you.”

Cote d’Ivoire head coach, Emerse Fae has revealed the key to his side’s victory against the Super Eagles of Nigeria.

Les Elephants edged Jose Peseiro’s side 2-1 in the final of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations at the Alassane Ouattara Stadium, Ebimpe, Abidjan, on Sunday night.

It was the West Africans third AFCON title.

“We noticed the Nigerian players were tired in the first half. They were not at their usual best,” Fae said after the game.

“I told my players during the half-time break that we must increase the intensity of our game and it worked out well for us.

“It was not an easy game but the good thing is that we won at the end of the day.”

I drove to Mamman Vatsa Writers Village, Mpape, Abuja. It is a huge sprawling estate of multiple storey buildings, many under construction. It is easy to get lost in this maze that is the home of the Association of Nigerian Authors, ANA. Somebody from the hilly top pointed at a building in what may well be a valley.

Outside the huge theatre, I found nobody. I was confident there were people inside. But it was like a void. Finally, I found somebody who confirmed a reading by Odia Ofeimum was scheduled for the theatre. But that was still some three hours away. I knew that, but I was also aware a pre-reading session was going on. The task was to locate it.

I finally did in the Femi Osofisan National Secretariat of ANA. In the packed hall was the most diverse array of writers I have ever seen in terms of demographic composition. There were nursery and primary school children with an average age of nine; youths, mainly from the University of Abuja and of course; Odia, 73, the Lagos-based political scientist, essayist, poet and writer who has gifted humanity over 43 books.

In a sense, he is an ancestor of ANA. When the writers association was to be registered, it was Odia, as General Secretary, who placed the public notice in the Thursday, October 24, 1985 edition of the Daily Times Newspapers. The advertised Trustees of the writers association were Professor Chinua Achebe, one of the most famous novelists in the universe. He was President. The second Trustee, Professor Wole Soyinka, under who I studied Drama in Ife, of course, needs no introduction. The third Trustee, was Major General Mamman Vatsa who secured the writers village for all writers in the country. Vatsa’s story is the stuff of tragic drama. He was a well-known writer in a military with an anti-intellectual tradition.

On March 5, 1986, his colleagues in uniform, led by General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, his childhood friend, and best-man, tied Vatsa, 46, to the stake, and sent him out of the world in a hail of bullets. His crime was for allegedly harbouring thoughts to overthrow the military regime. To add to the drama, his death was announced on network television, over one hour before he was executed.

This January 27, 2024 pre-reading session was by the Mbari Club, a body funded by intellectual power house, Professor Udenta .O. Udenta. When he turned 60 in 2023, Udenta off-loaded 23 books on the public.

ANA President, Dr Usman Oladipo Akanbi, who presided, fashioned out a consensus in the house which was that Odia should be referred to as a ‘Living Legend’ not ancestor. B.M.Dzukogi, former ANA National Secretary with at least ten books under his belt, who sat next to me, nodded enthusiastically in agreement.

We then moved to the main theatre for the ‘Odia Reading’ and literary festival which included performances by various artistes and prizes, especially for high school children who livened up the audience.

He read poem after poem and just as he seemed like an aircraft about to take off, he was reminded that the time was flying and he still had a panel discussion amongst other programmes.

Odia revealed that one of the greatest challenges he had to confront in life was the prediction that he would be of no use. His mother had believed this childhood prophesy. When he dropped out of school, it seemed to fall in line with this prediction. But he saw this as a challenge and moved to Benin City where his writings got him a job. However, he lost the job following a workers strike from which he refused to back out.

He made his way to Lagos, becoming a labourer, including a petrol attendant and factory worker. In all these, he focused on self-education. He passed the Ordinary and Advanced Level school certificate, and gained admission into the University of Ibadan where he read Political Science. He worked in the Federal Civil Service, as a teacher, and then, as the Private Secretary of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, perhaps Nigeria’s most programmatic political leader. Awolowo was known to pick only persons with photographic brains as his Private Secretary.

Odia left the prestigious Guardian Newspapers Editorial Board on a Commonwealth fellowship to Oxford University. He seemed settled in Britain. But I was surprised when in mid-1993 I ran into him in Anthony Village, Lagos. He was coming from the Imaria Street home of pro-Democracy leader, Dr. Beko Ransome-Kuti.

The June 12 presidential election had been annulled by the military regime, the country was in turmoil and Odia did not see how he could be out of a fight for the soul of the country. So, he took the next available flight to the country. He participated in the street battles and joined the underground press to fight military dictatorship.

This visit to the writers’ village was for me, a pilgrimage. I met mentors like Professor Nuhu Yaqub, former Vice Chancellor, Universities of Abuja and Sokoto State; veteran journalist, Tunji Ladner Jr; and retired Commissioner of Police and arts promoter, Emmanuel Ojukwu. I also got acquainted with the poet with the rhythmic name, Kabura Zakama, a veterinary doctor whose collection of poems, The Man Lived, won the 1999 ANA Poetry Prize.

To Odia, the reading was a sort of homecoming, having been off ANA activities for some time. He had for six years, been ANA Publicity Secretary and, General Secretary from 1982, and its President for four years from 1993. But he had gotten disillusioned about fights over the lands of the writers village, some of which were lost.

To him, the greatest asset of Nigerian writers is unity which can be further solidified by readings, performances, workshops and culturing the young.

A great polemicist whose writings cover a wide range of human life, including politics, Odia said of the significance of his reading at the Writers Village: “Some people thought I had stopped writing poetry, but frankly, it is the only thing I have really done.”

Super Eagles head coach, Jose Peseiro says his players were not at their best in Sunday’s defeat to Cote d’Ivoire.

Peseiro’s side fell to a 2-1 defeat to the hosts in the final of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations.

William Troost-Ekong gave Nigeria the lead with a header from a corner-kick in the 37th minute.

Cote d’Ivoire however fought back after the break with goals from Franck Kessie and Sebastien Haller.

Peseiro claimed after the game that his players failed to replicate their previous performance in the competition.

“My players did their best in this tournament, Cote d’Ivoire played better than us in this game. We didn’t show our level,” Peseiro said during his interaction with the media after the game.

“The performance on individual and collective level was not good enough for us.

“Cote d’Ivoire played better than us. They played really well. I wanted to win this trophy, my players wanted the trophy as well. It’s unfortunate we couldn’t do it.

“I’m sad, my players are sad too. The performance was not good enough but I can’t fault them. They gave their best in this tournament.

“These things happen in football. Sometimes things don’t go your way.”

Power distribution companies overbilled about 7.1 million unmetered electricity consumers between January and September 2023, an analysis of the latest monthly number of overbilled customers showed.

In the various Regulatory Interventions for Non-Compliance with the Order on Capping of Estimated Billing to Unmetered Customers, issued to the 11 Discos by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, an agency of the Federal Government, it was established that the power distributors raked over N105bn as a result of over-billing.

Figures computed by our correspondent indicated that Yola Disco overbilled about 42,902 customers to the tune of N541.9m during the review period, while Abuja Disco overbilled 1,823,218 customers by N17.9bn.

Benin Disco overbilled 754,849 customers underestimated billing by N10.5bn, as Enugu Disco overbilled a total of 1,011,402 customers to the tune of N11.9bn during the nine-month period.

Eko Disco overbilled 371,828 customers under the estimated billing category between January and June 2023, as the months of July, August and September were not captured in the report released by NERC. It overbilled these customers to the tune of N14.13bn.

Ibadan Disco made N333.68m from the overbilling of 143,465 customers underestimated billing between January and September last year, while Jos Disco overbilled 1,264,537 customers to the tune of N13.3bn.

Ikeja Disco overbilled 934,438 customers by N20.9bn, as Kaduna raked in N1.14bn from the overbilling of 126,071 power users under its franchise area during the review period.

Kano Discos overbilled 71,120 customers by N196.97m during the nine month period, while Port Harcourt Disco overbilled 605,621 customers to the tune of N14.2bn between January and June, as the number of overbilled customers in July, August and September were not captured.

It was reported on Saturday that the power sector regulator declared that it would deduct N10,505,286,072 from the annual allowed revenues of the 11 power distribution companies during the next tariff review as part of sanctions over their non-compliance with the capping of estimated bills for unmetered customers.

NERC stressed that the billing of unmetered customers by the power firms in their various franchise areas for 2023 revealed non-compliance with the monthly energy caps issued by the commission.

The regulator often issues orders stipulating the maximum amount that any unmetered customer is meant to pay to the distribution company that provides him or her electricity services.

The amount is continued until the customer is metered by the distribution company, according to NERC’s order to the power firms.

In its order, as reported on Saturday, the regulator said, “The public may recall that in 2020, the commission issued the order on Capping of Estimated Bills (Order No: NERC/197/2020) and subsequently issued monthly energy caps which aimed to align the estimated bills for unmetered customers with the measured consumption of metered customers on the same supply feeder.

“A review of the electricity distribution companies’ billing of unmetered customers for 2023 has revealed non-compliance with the monthly energy caps issued by the commission.”

In response to this and in a bid to safeguard unmetered customers from arbitrary billing by Discos, the commission stated that pursuant to Section 34(1)(d) of the Electricity Act 2023, it had issued the order on Non-Compliance with Capping of Estimated Bills (Order No: NERC/2024/004-01 4).

It said the order stipulates the following: “i. Credit adjustment to customers: Discos are to issue credit adjustments to all over-billed unmetered customers for the period January to September 2023 by the March 2024 billing cycle.

“ii. Public notice: Discos have been directed to publish the list of credit adjustment beneficiaries in two national dailies and on their website no later than March 31, 2024.

“iii, Regulatory sanctions: The commission shall deduct a sum of N10,505,286,072 from the annual allowed revenues of the 11 Discos during the next tariff review, to deter future non-compliance with the energy caps approved by the commission.”

Electricity consumers nationwide have continued to lodge complaints against excessive estimated bills by power distribution companies in Nigeria.

The PUNCH, for instance, exclusively reported on December 31, 2023, that power consumers lodged a total of 333,947 complaints bordering on metering, billing and service interruption to their various distribution companies within a period of three months.

According to the report, this was disclosed in the 2023 third quarter report of NERC, stating that the complaints were lodged in the months of July, August and September 2023.

The report stated that the customer complaints in the third quarter was higher than what was recorded in the preceding quarter by 8,049 cases.

It quoted the NERC report as saying that “the total number of complaints received across all Discos (distribution companies) in 2023/Q3 was 333,947; Ibadan Disco received the highest number of complaints (59,901), representing 17.93 percent of the total complaints received. Abuja Disco received the least number of complaints (1,919), representing 0.57 percent of the total complaints received.

“Compared to 2023/Q2, the number of complaints received, number of cases resolved, and average resolution rate changed by +2.47 percent (333,947 in 2023/Q3 vs. 325,898 in 2023/Q2), +1.19 percent (317,179 in 2023/Q3 vs. 313,442 in 2023/Q2), and -1.2 per cent (94.98 in 2023/Q3 vs. 96.18 in 2023/Q2) respectively.

“Benin (-47.85 percent), Jos (-26.21 percent) and Ikeja (-1.84 percent) Discos recorded decreases in the number of customer complaints received compared to 2023/Q2.

“Conversely, eight Discos recorded increases in the number of customer complaints with significant increases being recorded by Yola (+43.28 percent), Kano (+17.46 percent) and Port Harcourt (+16.05 percent).”

On the type of complaints, the report stated that “the most frequently reported issues among the 333,947 complaints received by Discos in 2023/Q3 were metering (57.31 percent), billing (12.88 per cent), and service interruption (8.07 percent).

“These three complaints categories cumulatively accounted for over 78 percent of the total complaints in the quarter. Out of the 333,947 complaints received in 2023/Q3, 317,179 were resolved, translating to a resolution rate of 94.98 percent.”

Meanwhile, the commission has reaffirmed its commitment to regulatory compliance and consumer protection within the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry.

Consumers expressed optimism that the power sector regulator would ensure the enforcement of this latest sanction on Discos, with the hope that it would deter the power firms from overbilling electricity users on estimated billing.

Former Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has lamented over the defeat of the Super Eagles of Nigeria to the Elephants of Cote d’Ivoire.

Atiku said the Super Eagles’ defeat was not the result Nigerians expected.

DAILY POST reports that the Ivorian team defeated their Nigerian counterparts 2-1.

However, Atiku posted on X: “Not the result we all expected. Nonetheless, we remain #SuperEagles. Still proud of you guys. Well done, @NGSuperEagles. -AA”

On his part, former Kaduna Central Senator, Shehu Sani congratulated the Ivorian team.

He posted: “In the spirit of Sportsmanship,Congratulations to Ivory Coast and to the Super Eagles. We are proud of their performance. #AFCON2023.