The Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) has listed steps electricity consumers who are within their franchise areas of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Kogi, Nasarawa and Niger State should take to enable them access meters through the Meter Asset Provider Intervention (MAP).
Electricity Distribution companies have commenced the process of distributing meters to customers under the MAP Regulations enacted by the regulator, Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) which had already seen AEDC rolling out 900 000 meters to cover its franchise areas.
NERC had said that customers would have the option of paying for the meters in instalment, but some third party investors who have been outsourced the task of providing the meters by the Discos have said a prompt payment for the meters will help them meet their obligation to their bankers.
Oyebode Fadipe, Spokesperson of Abuja AEDC told BusinessDay that many consumers had been making inquiries on how to have access to the meter since the commencement of MAP from 1st of May.
“Since the commencement of MAP interventions, a lot of people have been making inquiries about the meter. A huge number of persons have been making inquiries about meter since the commencement of the MAP. A guy from Zenith Bank just left my office now, he makes to make inquiries. Interestingly,many people have expressed willingness with regard to owning a meter.”Fadipe said.
“From our observation so far, many people in our franchise area are willing to get rid of estimated meters and get prepaid to know actually what they are spending.
According to Fadipe, “The targeted population for metering is about 900 000 within our franchise area and Abuja is taking up to 50% of that number. We are expected that within the expected time frame of 36 months that the MAP is expected to work, we are expected to address concerns of metering access substantially.”
Since the privatisation of the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry, NESI, the industry has been with the huge burden of metering customers by the eleven distribution companies.
Fadipe informed BusinessDay that AEDC approves the Meter Asset Providers, MAP Vendors comprising of Moject International, expected to cover the federal capital Territory and Kogi state. Meron consortium is expected to cover Nasarawa, whereas, Turbo Energy is expected to cover Niger state.
According to Fadipe, “The Abuja Electricity Distribution Company as at the commencement of MAP from 1st May has established a MAP office dedicated to executing the MAP project while serving customers metering needs. The AEDC has directed customers in franchise areas to ensure they get to their area offices through www.abujaelectricity.com/our-
While outlining the steps for the payment of the MAP, Fadipe told BusinessDay that customers are not to make payment for the meter to anyone, organisation, group or any account number that is not authorised by the AEDC.
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Fadipe listed the steps as follows, “Customer will go to AEDC website, www.abujaelectricity.
“Customers’ premises will be visited to perform site verification to determine the type of Meter the customers’ needs. The Customer ins the fourth step is advised via SMS or email to go ahead to make payments with proper payment instructions, after which he makes payment. Once he makes the payment, he or she is metered within 10 working days.
NERC had noted in a recent statement that 11 Discos in the power market had a collective customer base of 8,292,840, but have only been able to provide meters for just 3,591,168, while 4,701,672 have not been metered as at August 2018.
Oyebode Fadipe said the MAP intervention should be able to close the metering gap significantly to about 90% to address some of the liquidity concerns in the sector.
