The federal government has ordered electricity Distribution companies (Discos) to stop customers from buying transformers, saying that is the Discos’ responsibilities.

The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, issued the order when he received the new Managing Director of Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC), Mr Ernest Mupwaya, yesterday.

He said: “Private purchase of transformers must stop because that is the responsibility of the Disco and that is what will bring confidence that the system is working.”

Speaking on liquidity challenges, Mupwaya said that since the Disco could not post a Letter of Credit (LC) with the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET), it could not benefit from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) power fund to boost its investments.

“We seek the minister’s ‘No Objection’ to use a portion of the MDAs debts as collateral for the LC,” Mupwaya said. He pointed out that LC would boost the Disco’s credit worthiness and make it eligible for CBN fund.

Responding on the MDAs debt, Fashola said: “We need to verify some of the debts and stratify who owes what and who is owed what.” He urged AEDC to provide information to speed up the process.