Speaking at a recent PwC power roundtable in Lagos, Momoh highlighted that energy theft is particularly prevalent in affluent areas, often involving well-known hotels and influential individuals.
“Energy theft is a big problem. From experience, we have noted that energy theft is more prevalent where the big men live. We all know that if a big man or a rich man steals this energy and a poor man steals, it’s not the same,” she said.
She disclosed that EKEDC has uncovered multiple instances of large commercial establishments illegally bypassing meters, significantly inflating losses across the network. “We have seen cases where known hotels, including four-star hotels, bypass meters, stealing this energy and thereby increasing the losses for almost everyone. We are even in talks recently with one of the hotels that was caught bypassing. I wouldn’t want to mention the name of the hotel because we are in court,” Momoh added.
EKEDC currently serves approximately 789,000 customers and has developed a three-tiered strategy to improve performance. The short-term plan focuses on commercial excellence and closing the emission gap, the medium-term plan emphasizes customer-centric improvements and technology upgrades, and the long-term goal targets market effectiveness.
Momoh pointed out that despite the sector’s privatisation, structural and operational inefficiencies persist. Decades of reliance on manual metering have left systems vulnerable to fraud, while the lack of real-time monitoring has hampered prompt detection of faults and theft.
“For decades, the energy market has been rooted in traditional practices. We were all doing manual metering, which is prone to fraud and numerous issues,” she said, noting that EKEDC is currently the only distribution company operating a SCADA system, though only 15 of its 54 electrical substations are fully connected.
To reduce downtime caused by delayed fault detection, EKEDC has acquired five advanced fault locators, with each costing approximately N490 million. “There is always downtime because it is only when a customer reports a fault that we become aware. By the time we arrive, we also have to manually locate the fault. But, to the glory of God, we have just acquired five fault locators, so we can reduce downtime,” Momoh explained.
On the financial front, Momoh said distribution companies remain under severe strain, noting that banks are unwilling to lend based on accounting profits alone, requiring real cash flow instead. She also cited inadequate power generation, legacy debts, poor collection efficiency, and deteriorating infrastructure as persistent obstacles.
“Presently, installed generation capacity is about 13,000 megawatts. What is the available capacity? Between 4,000 and 5,000 megawatts,” she stated. The CEO further described the challenges of dilapidated networks, uncollectable customer debts, unpaid bills by ministries, departments, and agencies, high interest rates, and vandalism, even in high-income areas like Ikoyi.
Despite these hurdles, Momoh stressed that smart metering is central to addressing energy theft, inefficiencies, and revenue leakages. “Smart meters are the way forward,” she said, emphasising technology as a critical tool for reforming the sector and improving overall operational efficiency.
Her remarks underscore the complex challenges confronting Nigeria’s power sector and the urgent need for modernisation, stronger enforcement, and innovative solutions to secure reliable electricity supply.