The number of unmetered Nigerians has increased to 7.42 million as of September 2020, latest data from the Nigerian Electricity Commission has shown.
The official data obtained by BizWatch Nigeria on Tuesday indicated that out of 11,841,819 registered electricity customers, only 4,425,628(about 37.37 per cent) had been metered as of the end of September 2020.
The regulatory framework on Meter Asset Provider (Regulation) issued by the Nigerian Electricity Commission (NERC) came into effect on 8 March 2018 and became enforceable on 3 April 2018.
The Regulation seeks to encourage the development of independent and competitive meter services, eliminate estimated billing practices and close the metering gap through accelerated meter roll out.
In 2018, NERC issued licences to 22 firms as prospective meter asset providers following the introduction of the MAP Regulations.
The 11 Discos are required to commence the procurement process of engaging meter asset providers to serve their service areas in accordance with an approved roll-out plan.
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According to the regulations, the distribution licensees (Discos) and the MAPs are expected to enter into a metering service agreement based on the number of meters to be installed by MAP in the distribution licensee’s network over an agreed period and the recovery of the cost of meter asset plus a reasonable return over a period of 10 years, among others.
A breakdown of the NERC data showed that Ibadan Disco had the highest metering gap of 2.094 million unmetered registered customers, followed by Abuja Disco with 753,857 unmetered customers and Enugu Disco with 665,265 customers without meters.
Benin has 620,770 unmetered registered customers; Eko 261,659; Ikeja 560,295; Jos 424,666; Kaduna 558,687; Kano 549,906; Port Harcourt 595,056; and Yola 331,976 metering gap.
The FG in October last year provided one million pre-paid meters under the National Mass Metering Programme (NMMP) to the electricity Distribution Companies.
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However, the 11 Discos warehoused 983,693 in their offices and were only able to distribute 16,308 prepaid meters as of November 2020 despite the yearning of electricity consumers for the meters.
The World Bank last week announced the approval of $500 million to support the Nigerian government in the distribution of meters to electricity consumers.
“The project will help boost electricity access by improving the performance of the Electricity Distribution Companies (Discos) through a large-scale metering program desired by Nigerians for a long time,” the World Bank said in a statement.
“In addition, financial support would be provided to private distribution companies only on achievement of results in terms of access connections, improved financial management and network expansion.”
