FG delivers only 16,000 out of promised 1million free meters

The Federal Government of Nigeria has delivered a paltry 16,308 meters out of the 1 million free meters it promised Nigerians, three months after the programme started.

In October, the Federal Government announced a plan to provide 6million free meters for electricity customers under the National Mass Metering Program (NMMP). The programme was launched with much fanfare on October 30 and the government said it would distribute 1 million meters to customers in Kano, Kaduna, Eko, and Ikeja DISCO franchise areas.

However, data from the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission shows that in October only 1,942 meters were delivered in Abuja DisCo, 5 in Lagos, and 11 in Kano.

To date, a total of 6,999 meters have been delivered in Abuja, 71 in Lagos, 345 in Jos, 117 in Kaduna and 6,818 in Rivers state.

Electricity distribution companies (DisCos) across the country have told BusinessDay that they are yet to begin allocating meters to customers citing procurement challenges that are yet to be settled between the Central Bank who will provide the funding, the meter providers and the Federal Government.

Other hitches stakeholders tell BusinessDay includes the fallouts of the EndSARS protests which led to the shut down of the country and government officials being directed to return to their various states to resolve issues arising from the protests, hence affecting timelines for negotiation and delivery.

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“The programme is still on course, but it has been affected by several challenges,” said Joe Ajaero, a senior member of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) who signed the agreement with the government on behalf of Labour to shelve the planned strike over electricity tariff increase.

While BusinessDay in an earlier report could not confirm if the distribution had started, this data released by NERC highlights the challenge of funding identified as an impediment to the project.

The NMMP is to roll out 6 million meters for all connection points on the grid without meters over the next 18 to 24 months. It is estimated that this will impact 30 million consumers.

The Central Bank of Nigeria approved guidelines for funding the mass metering program on October 18th and rollout was supposed to commence on the 30th of the same month. Yet only about 1.6 percent of the meters have been distributed.

The inability of the programme to take-off confirms the concern some had over what becomes of the Meter Asset Providers (MAPs), a programme wherein third party meter providers give customers meter for a fee.

Data from NERC shows that under the MAPs arrangement only 508,812 meters out of the contracted 6.5million meters have been delivered.

Though the DisCos have dismissed any notion that the free meter distribution programme would interfere with the Meter Asset Providers regulation, previous experience with meter distribution by DisCos has left a sour taste in the mouth of customers.

The Credited Advanced Payment for Metering Implementation (CAPMI) scheme was scrapped four years ago after it emerged that many customers who paid for meters did not get them.

Sources tell BusinessDay that some MAPs are aggrieved over the new meter initiative because it violates the terms of the MAPs contract they had with the regulator. Though MAPs have been included in the NMMP, there are still questions about who will pay for the meters estimated to gulp over N269billion.

“ I don’t know how the government that is currently borrowing to finance basic obligations will pay for it,” said Ayodele Oni, an energy lawyer and partner at Bloomfield law firm.

According to the agreement reached with labour union and the Federal Government, the provision of prepaid meters was part of the condition to allow a tariff increase. The tariff increase has since been effected under the Service Reflective Tariff arrangement but customers are yet to get the promised meters.

Under the MAPs and NMMP arrangement, a total of 525,120 out of a possible 7,588,972 has been delivered. Worse still, the regulator says there are about 4million connections that are metered.