Despite increasing the number of license companies in procurement of prepaid meters to solve the old perennial problem of estimated billing, latest data from National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has revealed there has being little or no improvement in distribution of prepaid meters.
Estimated billing is a bitter pill that most electricity consumers have been forced to swallow for decades. Many Nigerians have considered the billing system as deliberate extortion by the power distribution companies.
Whether you are a house or flat owner, renting or a landlord the importance of having a prepaid meter cannot be over emphasis, however despite its huge significant data from NBS revealed total number of consumers with prepaid meters stood at 1.67 million, slightly above the 1.65million customers recorded in Q3 2018.
“Abuja Disco has the highest number of customers metered. This is closely followed by Benin Disco and Eko Disco while Yola Disco recorded the least total number of customers metered,” NBS said in its latest report titled “Power Sector Report.”
In Q4 2018, Abuja Discos recorded the highest number of consumers with prepaid meters of 295,641 consumers which was higher than 292,714 consumers with prepaid meters recorded in Q3 2018.
Benin Disco recorded the second highest number of consumers with prepaid meters of 287,995 compare to 285,144 consumers recorded in Q3 while Eko Disco had 161,382 consumers with prepaid meters in Q4 compare to 159,784 consumers recorded in Q3 2018.
Enugu Discos recorded total 141,465 consumers with prepaid meters in q4 2018 compare to 140,064 consumers in Q3 2018 while Ibadan Discos recorded 256,804 consumers with prepaid meters in Q4 2018 compare to 254,261 consumers recorded in 2017.
“The need to place all customers on prepaid meters in order to get them to only pay for what they consume has been re-stated on different occasions across Nigeria, however it seems as if the Discos are intentionally frustrating the system,” said Emmanuel Afimia, an energy expert at Afimia consulting limited.
Stakeholders expected relief when Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) confirmed that additional eight companies have being license to participate in procurement of prepaid meter increasing the total to 30 companies.
Currently, there is a hardly a day that passes without a protest in one part of the country or the other over allegations of overbilling, estimated billing and billing when there is total power outage all through the month (generally termed “crazy bills”).
Irked by the avalanche of protests, in 2018, the Majority Leader in the House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, sponsored a bill to criminalise estimated billing.
According to reports, the bill passed the third reading at the House of Representatives after the report submitted by the committee set up by the House was unanimously adopted by the lawmakers following a public hearing on the matter.
Specifically, the bill, which seeks to amend the Electricity Power Sector Reforms Act prohibits and criminalises estimated billing of consumers. It seeks to outlaw estimated billing and prescribes penalties for DISCOs that fail to supply prepaid meters to their consumers within 30 days of applying to be connected to power.
Interestingly, just as the critical bill was shaping up, the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, announced the approval of 108 firms to share prepaid meters.
According to the power minister who spoke in Lagos, 108 metering companies had been given licenses to supply meters to address problem of discriminatory and arbitrary billing in the electricity sector.
At the moment, there is an observed rip-off on the part of the DISCOs, which put the cost of a meter at N73, 000 as against the actual average cost of N20, 000.
It is undisputable that power supply is an indispensable amenity needed to speedily drive development in any country. It has been agreed by many investors that epileptic power supply remains one of the major problems that set Nigeria on an economic retrogression.
DIPO OLADEHINDE
