This community transformer racket has to stop completely. It is daylight robbery disguised as community self-help, and the regulatory double standard is sickening.
Look at how the power sector works in Nigeria:
When a community transformer blows up, the DisCo goes deaf. You write letters, make calls, and nothing happens. Six months down the line, residents are suffocating in darkness, small businesses are dying, and fuel prices are draining everybody's pockets.
Out of sheer desperation, landlords gather, task every household 50k, 100k, or more, and scrape together 5 to 8 million Naira to buy a brand new transformer, buy heavy copper cables, and pay for poles.
The moment that equipment is energized, the DisCo claims it as company property. They add it to their network balance sheet, and within two weeks, they start distributing Band A and Band B bills. If you do not pay, they disconnect you with the ladder leaning on the very pole you bought with your own sweat.
How can a private, for-profit utility company take free capital equipment from struggling citizens, pay zero interest, give zero equity, and then charge those same citizens full price to use it?
If NERC mandated that customers who pay upfront for meters under the MAP scheme must be refunded their money over time through energy credits, why does the exact same logic not apply to transformers?
A meter costs 100k to 150k and you refund it via monthly energy units.
A transformer costs 6 to 10 million Naira funded by an entire street, and you pretend it was a charitable donation to a private entity?
This injustice has to end.
If a community is forced to step in and buy infrastructure because a DisCo failed its obligations, NERC should make automatic amortization mandatory:
Every single household on that street that contributed to buying that transformer should have their meter credited with monthly energy units until the full cost of the asset, cables, and installation logistics is completely paid back.
You cannot let private DisCos enrich their asset portfolios with crowd-funded community blood and then charge those same people premium tariffs for power. If DisCos want to own the asset, they must refund the people who paid for it.