The Federal Government and the power Distribution Companies (Discos) failed in their target to achieve one million prepaid meter installations between October and December 2020.
So far, only 16,308 of the projected installations, representing 1.6 percent, was achieved at the end of November.
According to the data recently released by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), under a table tagged: “Analysis of meter deployment across electricity distribution companies”, revealed that in November, Enugu, Benin, Ibadan, and Yola Discos had not begun deployment as of the time the data was released.
It is projected that at the current rate of 8,000 installations monthly, the first phase would be completed over a 10 year period. The current un-metered consumers are estimated to be around 10 million.
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The Federal Government had announced in October that it had begun the supply and installation of 1 million free prepaid meters to Nigerian homes.
The Minister of Power, Mr. Sale Mamman, stated that President Muhammadu Buhari under the National Mass Metering Programme (NMMP), had directed a mass metering scheme for the power sector, starting immediately that month.
He said under the first phase of the initiative, the government would provide funds for Discos to roll out one million meters at no cost to consumers, adding that deployment had already started in Kano, Kaduna, Lagos, and Abuja.
With future phases of the metering initiative expected to meet 6.5 million deficit of meters nationwide and impact an estimated 30 million consumers, the federal government, while flagging off the programme, noted that the meters will be sourced from local manufacturers and in-country stock to create jobs.
“We are committed to ending estimated billing in all forms in Nigeria, and ensuring that Nigerians pay only for the electricity they consume,” Mamman had stated.
But a quick check revealed that while four Discos were yet to start the installation, Abuja Disco, which had contracted 101,186 units of the devices, has installed just 8,941 to date; Benin, with a share of 90,870, distributed none while Eko, with 79,178 has fixed only 52. Enugu, with a quota of 92,381, is yet to take off.
Similarly, according to NERC data released at the weekend, Ibadan, with a quota of 103,997 has installed none; Ikeja, with an allocation of 106,701 has only installed 24 devices while Jos has only fixed 345 out of 88,538 units allocated to the Disco.
In addition, Kaduna only installed 117 out of 86,957 meters; Kano fixed 11 out of its 87,747 rations; Port Harcourt did fairly by installing 6,818 out of its 77,070 contracted devices while Yola has not taken off.
The one-million-meter-rollout initiative is supported by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and is targeted at narrowing the metering gap and saving Nigerians from excessive billing as well as enhancing the efficiency of revenue collection by the Discos.
