N2billion hotel facility is on the verge of shutting down in Delta due to lack of power supply

…Hotelier paid BEDC N11m without power

…BEDC demands additional N30m from the hotel

The management of multi-billion naira facility, Lascurt International Hotel, Ekpan/NPA Expressway, Effurun, Delta State, has appealed to the Delta State government led by Senator Ifeanyi Okowa to come to their aid as its business is on the verge of being shut down due to lack of public power supply.

The management also called on the members of the National Assembly from Delta State, the MD of Benin Electricity Distribution Company,  BEDC to intervene in their case after spending over N11m to get connected to public power supply, without result.

They alleged that the management of BEDC is demanding additional N30m before they can be hooked to the power supply.

The facility which houses, lounge and club, a luxury restaurant which can accommodate over 200 at a sit on it two sections, the VIP and regular, a shopping mall, hotel and accommodation was opened for business in October 2021 but is currently running at a huge cost due to lack of power supply Benin Electricity Distribution Company, BEDC.

Speaking to newsmen at a press conference, the Managing Director of Lascurt International Hotel, Mr Austin Wareyai, said that he was motivated to set up the facility at Effurun-Warri in order to create employment for the teeming unemployed youths because Warri was where he had his foundation.

However, his dream of bringing a world-class facility to the oil city is now in jeopardy following the undercut activities of the Management of BEDC, which wants the hotel to cough out a whopping sum of N40m before it could be connected to the public power supply.

 

According to Mr Wareyai, “I got this concept from one of my trips overseas, I felt that if I can bring something of the same standard to my country, and my city. We enjoy such facilities when we travel abroad, so, if we have the same standard of facilities here, it will boost our tourism industry, create employment, and also generate revenue to the state and the nation, this is our vision.”

He disclosed that this vision is been threatened because the hotel is unable to be hocked to the national grid, not because they have not done what is required by BEDC to get the facility connected, but some interests are bent on frustrating the business by applying different rules when it comes to Lascurt hotel.

He stated further that for the facility to run efficiently and optimally, it needs uninterrupted power, “having this at the back of our mind; we approach the management of Benin Electricity Distribution Company, BEDC to hook us to line 33 National Grid, incidentally, that is what every hotel, fuel stations and business around here are using to power their facilities.

“We made this application while we were still building, we gave them all that they requested from us, and when we apply, we applied for 33/500KVA, that is what all business outlets around here are using because it has a more stable power supply.

“BEDC told us that since our facility is a mega facility, we should go for 33/500KVA transformer, we agreed to their recommendation, they gave us the cost, and we applied for it, bought the transformer from their recommended vendor, provided all the logistics at a huge cost.

“However, when they supplied the transformer, instead of 33/500KVA we applied and paid for, they supplied 11/500KVA transformer which cannot serve our purpose. We rejected it that.

“Since we don’t want our business to suffer, we approached them again for the way forward, and they told us to increase the transformer and reapply for NEMSA approval, they brought another cost of about N18m for the fresh transformer. Meanwhile, we had spent well over N11m for the first transformer which did not work, no thanks to BEDC.

“They said it will cover the cost of buying and installing the1MVA transformer which they recommended. We agreed, if that will enable us to get stable power to run our business, we applied for it.

“After they have collected huge sums of money from us as logistics to Abuja and other places, they came up with another memo requesting us to pay additional N8.8M as a security deposit for two months.

“When we applied for the first transformer, we paid N1.5m as a security deposit, BEDC is telling us to pay additional N8, 845,740.24 before they will come to install the 1MVA, after all, we have paid to get NEMSA approval, and this is outside another N4m they said we are going to pay for industrial meter.

“If you put these figures together, officially BEDC is demanding over N40m from us to get connected to power, this does not include huge sums running into millions collected as logistics from us, BEDC is frustrating investors in Delta, the State Government, our representative at the national assembly and well-meaning Deltans should come to our aid.

“I am concerned because the facility has started operation, youths are already employed, left for me, I would have shut down the business because of BEDC frustration. I have other businesses that I and my family can survive with, but what about over 100 youths that have been employed, trained and have started working to earn a legitimate income, what happens to them?

“To set up this business, we have so far spent well over N2b, but the facility is at the verge of shutting down, and over 100 youths employed thrown back into the already saturated labour market.

“We officially open operation in October 2021, and since then we have been running on generator as our power source, spending an average of N200, 000 daily to fuel the generator with huge maintenance cost.

“If we are frustrated out of business today, how do you expect other investors from Lagos and other places to come to Delta and Warri to invest in an unfriendly business environment, that is why the Delta state government must do something about this issue.

“We believe that setting up this facility here in Effurun would have attracted more business, other investors who saw what we did can decide to bring something better and bigger to Delta and Warri, to compete with us.

“However, it will not be encouraging to investors coming from outside Delta to hear that they would have to pay over N40m to BEDC to get electricity to power their business, no investor would like to risk that.

I don’t think EKO Electricity Distribution Company will do this to an investor in Lagos, Delta should not just be about oil and gas, we should look beyond oil and gas economy, even for oil and gas business to thrive, you also need standard hotel facility for the multi-international oil company that will come, and that is the service we are providing.

“So, I want to use this medium to appeal to the Delta State government to step in, even as I also appeal to the management of BEDC to have a rethink on their decision, if not for anything, for the interest of the youths that are already engaged here.

“Imagine if what we are spending in the past three months to generate power is paid to BEDC, it will boost their revenue and it will help us to cut down running cost. And because of the huge cost of running the generator all through, it has affected the payment of our staff December and January salaries, if urgent steps are not taken, we may be forced to shut down the facility.

“As it’s today, we are using money we were supposed to pay to BEDC and Staff salary to fuel generator, to sustain this facility, we need a stable power supply and that is why we are appealing to Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, BEDC MD, National Assembly to intervene.