The Managing Director, TStv Africa Pay TV, Mr Bright Echefu has lamented the poor power supply being experienced in the country and called on the Federal Government to quickly improve on it and save the business.
Echefu, in his Facebook handle on Thursday, expressed dismay at a situation in which his company bought 769,300 litres of diesel and spent a total of N232 million from January to December 2021 for its headquarters and affiliate offices across the country.
He noted that the diesel used in the TStv headquarters had risen from N14 million monthly as of 2021 to N36 million monthly in 2022.
In the words of Echefu; “In January 2022, the N17 million monthly rose to N24m monthly. I cried. This March, I am so pained that diesel for TSTV headquarters operation alone has climbed to N36 million for the same 45,000 litres we bought at N14m in October 2021.
“As a company, it was never convenient spending 17m monthly on power in Abuja HQ of TSTV alone. From our finance records, TSTV bought 769,300 litres of diesel and spent a total of N232 million from January 2021 to December 2021 for TSTV headquarters and its affiliate offices.
“There are several months we have relied on generators to run our 24-hour operations. In most part of 2021, we spent between N12 million and N14 million monthly on diesel,” he said.
Echefu however said that the actual need of TSTV monthly was 68,000 litres and this covers other offices of TStv and affiliated businesses across Nigeria.
The TStv boss said he received a request for the usual 68,000 litres of diesel for the headquarters and its affiliated offices, which cost N54.4 million for March 2022 alone.
According to him; “TStv headquarters alone runs 24 hours on generators since July 2021. It consumes 45,000 litres monthly and that is no joke.
“Yesterday, I received a request for the usual 68,000 litres of diesel for TSTV headquarters and other offices of affiliated companies and guess what the cost will be, N54.4 million for March 2022 alone.
“Imagine N54.4 million for the month of March alone. N54.4 million is 23 per cent of our total spending on diesel in 2021.
“How can N14 million monthly that we spent in most of last year for diesel climb to N54.4 million monthly? If this issue is not resolved by the government, it means TSTV should be prepared to look for N489 million to power its generators for the next 9 months,” he said.
Echefu assured that the company would continue to serve Nigerians with uninterrupted pay-TV service, stressing that this was coming with extreme pain and discomfort.
He further said; “I am pained and I know a lot of SMEs are going through this crisis too. The facility seats on 1.6 hectares of land. We have over 200 ACs to power, we have transmission equipment, we have 150- Channel Network Operations Center,
“We have TSTV studios, Satellite teleport, Tier III data centre facility and many infrastructures all in Idu headquarters that must never go off for one second”.
