As Nigeria battles perennial shortage in electricity supply, bringing millions of its consumers under a more accountable, transparent metering system has remained even a more herculean task over the years.
The government and the power distribution companies (DisCos) have also continued to complain of revenue shortfalls in the sector.
As at September 30, 2023, Nigeria’s metering gap stood at over 7 million – though reports suggest it could be more than that. This is amid frequent grid collapse, which as at today, seems to have defied solutions.
A report by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) shows that out of the total 12,825,005 registered electricity customers, only 5,707,838 have meters, indicating that over 7.1 million registered customers still are subjected to the estimated billing system.
To close this gap, President Bola Tinubu-led administration recently established a Presidential Metering Initiative, which was announced by Adebayo Adelabu, minister of power.
The minister, who put the metering shortfall at 8 million, reiterated the federal government’s commitment to eliminate estimated billing by the end of 2024 and close the gap within the space of three to five years, through the new initiative.
“Citizens are tired of estimated billing because it always leads to cheating between consumers, staff and company. Before the end of this year, we are looking at the possibility of ending estimated billing because we want transparency and objectivity in our billing system,” Adelabu said, even though he did not elaborate on the modalities for the new initiative and specific targets.
“We have up to eight million meters gap in Nigeria and what the initiative seeks to achieve is to close this gap within three to five years. This means that an average of two million meters is required on a yearly basis and achieving the target is compulsory for citizens to enjoy stable power supply,” he added.
However, this is not the first attempt at ensuring adequate metering for electricity customers; several past governments had rolled out ambitious targets and plans to tackle the issue but failed to deliver as expected.
Experts remain skeptical about how the new strategy will achieve this ambitious target, especially since there is no implementation structure yet, coupled with the soaring costs of meters posing a major threat.
Speaking with BusinessDay, Kunle Olubiyo, president of Nigeria Consumer Protection Network, said the recent move by NERC to increase the cost of prepaid meters, has further made meters unaffordable for Nigerians, who are currently grappling with tough economic conditions.
He said this could hamper the achievement of the targets set by the government – even though he recognised that the current weakness of the naira makes a case for high cost of meters, which the importers or local manufacturers will naturally transfer to the customers.
In September, NERC announced an increase in the price of electricity meters from N58,661.69 to N81,975.16 for a single-phase meter and from N109,684.36 to N143,836.10 for a three-phase meter.
For Olubiyo, the increase was a disincentive to the nation’s drive to achieve 100 percent metering for electricity customers. He said the price for meters was above the earnings of many Nigerians whose incomes are constantly being eroded by rising inflation and overall high cost of living.
He said: “Considering the low disposable income of an average Nigerian customer, it might be difficult for many to afford the new rates.
“It might be difficult for many to afford the new rates without a mechanism for refunds and this may further increase the huge metering gaps in the electricity market.”
Olubiyo, however, attributed the price increase to the recent devaluation of the naira as well as other economic variables that may have impacted the activities of meter assemblers.
“The importers of the prepaid meters and meter assembling plants are of the view that appropriate pricing of single-phase prepaid meters should be N90,000 and that 3-phase prepaid meters should ordinarily be selling for N169,000 or more,” he said.
NERC had directed the DisCos to utilise any of the financing frameworks provided in the 2021 Meter Asset Provider (MAP) and National Mass Metering Regulations (NMMR) to close their respective metering gaps.
This, according to the commission, would serve as a safeguard for customers against exploitation due to the lack of meters, as well as help boost adequate revenue collection by DisCos for electricity billed to customers.
BusinessDay findings revealed that the 11 DisCos in the country have continued to fall short in revenue collection compared to energy billed. Total revenue collected in the third quarter of 2023 stood at N267.61billion out of a total bill of N349.55 billion to customers.
For the second quarter, revenue collected was N267.86 billion out of N354.61 billion billed to customers.
The revenue collected in Q1 2023 stood at N247.09 billion, which was 31.25 percent lower than N359.38 billion billed to customers.
Speaking with BusinessDay, Barth Nnaji, former minister of power and chairman of Geometric Power Limited, said the recent naira devaluation has compounded the problem, making meters more expensive for buyers.
Nnaji, who noted that metering remains a critical element in ensuring improved power supply, said that Geometric Power Limited was determined to support the government in ensuring that more electricity customers get metered.
He said: “Metering is a critical element for improving power, because when you talk about reducing AT&C losses, metering is a critical element. But it is very expensive and it has become more expensive because most components of the meters we don’t produce here, so they are brought down and assembled here. So as the naira devalues, it has become more expensive.
“We are all determined, like from my company, we are determined to ensure that we significantly improve metering.”
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