By Ediri Ejoh

IN line with its mission to boost power supply in Nigeria, the Power Africa, a U.S. Government-led initiative coordinated by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) yesterday supplied some technical equipment to the Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC).

From right: MD/CEO of Eko Disco, Engr. Adeoye Fadeyibi; Eko Disco Board Chairman, Charles Momho; Power Africa advisor, Gela Kereselidze; DG Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE), Alex Okoh; Ernest Oji, Dere Otubu and George Etomi, all Board members of Eko Disco at the delivery of some technical equipment to Eko Electricity Distribution Company by Power Africa in Lagos.

The development was aimed at boosting the logistical and technical foundation of the company.

The official delivery of the items was performed yesterday at Eko Disco Corporate Headquarters in Marina, Lagos.

Speaking at the delivery ceremony, Chairman of the Board, Eko Disco, Mr. Charles ItseMomoh, expressed satisfaction on the positive outcome of the partnership between the two bodies, adding that the choice of EKEDC as one of the beneficiary for the USAID partnership would go a long way in building a new culture of excellence that has been the focus of the core investors of the company since 2013.

According to him, the partnership would add much more value and produce more dividends than envisaged.

Representative of USAID/Tetra Tech, Mr. Gela Kereselidza, said the equipment supplied would serve as a big support for the attainment of performance-improvement goal of the partnership.

He noted that the performance of Eko Disco, so far, has been encouraging and USAID was convinced that the choice of the company for the partnership was not a wrong decision.

Gela pointed out that the two units of state-of- the art Zera Test System among the equipment would help reduce Aggregate Technical, Commercial and Collection (ATC&C) losses in the company.

It was gathered that apart from the Zera test system, other equipment expected to be supplied include  500 hundred DT statistic meters with all accessories (CTs, Switchers, Boxes and etc) to boost metering efficiency and billing accuracy.

Also to be supplied is a bucket truck to boost operational efficiency in overhead line tracing and fault clearing.

Recall that Power Africa had staked    over $12 million investment in a bid to support the four distribution companies (Abuja Electricity Distribution Company, AEDC Benin Electricity Distribution Company, BEDC, Eko Electricity Distribution Company, EKEDC), to facilitate    the self-reliance and resilience of Nigeria’s energy sector and demonstrates USAID’s position as the world’s premier international development agency.