As part of new efforts to deepen seamless access to electricity in rural and under-served regions of the country, the Liberia Electricity Corporation (LEC) has officially removed the upfront service connection fee. The corporation also reiterated that electric power items such as wires, meters, light poles and streetlights are absolutely not for sale.
Here in Nigeria, everything pertaining to power supply are borne by citizens except in some cases, government may decide to donate transformers.
Before now, new customers were required to pay the $55 service connection fee as a perquisite for electricity connection, the Capitol Times reported.
In a national announcement, LEC said in parts; “To increase access to electricity we are…cancelling the down payment of service connection fees, LEC”
“The service connection fee would now be deducted after connection over a period during the purchase of recharge tokens.
“The decision was reached after a careful review of the customers’ connection procedures, the power utility explained.
Analysts say the latest shift in policies will afford all Liberians, regardless of status, access to electricity services at an accelerated pace.
In a further analysis of the new policy, managing director of LEC, Ernest R. Hughes, noted that “In order to increase access to electricity, we are taking this major step by cancelling the down payment of service connection fees, which was a major bottle neck in our recruitment drive. The overarching objective of this policy is to reduce customers’ wait time for connection and to resultantly increase the number of customers.”
He advised citizens to report any case of extortion to the management of the corporation or the Liberia National Police, saying “Individuals caught in this unscrupulous act shall be investigated and prosecuted”.
Business Hilights gathered that before now, Liberia has been battling with illegal electricity connections and vandalism, resulting in LEC losing about $300,000 in monthly revenues. Read earlier in the year, President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf had instructed the minister of lands, mines and energy, Patrick Sendolo, to promulgate stronger regulations to impose higher fines and prison terms pursuant to the Electricity Law of 2015 as amended to mitigate the intractable cases of abuse of the country’s limited resources including energy and communication facilities.
