Mojec, West Africa’s manufacturer of electricity, meters in collaboration with the Federal Government and power distribution companies (DisCos), recently flagged off the Phase1 of the National Mass Metering Programme (NMMP) roll-out in Lagos, Kano, Kaduna and Abuja.
The FG in its bid to bridge the estimated five-million-meter gap in the country will distribute 1 million meters through the network of power Distribution Companies (DisCos) over the next two months. Under the new NMMP, Mojec as a supplier to Ikeja Electric, Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC), Kaduna Electric, Kano Electricity Distribution Company (KEDCO) and Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) has commenced distribution and installation of these one million meters across select franchise areas.
Tayo Fogbonjaiye, the project manager, Mojec, said that the stock plan has gone into meeting up with the Meter Asset Providers (MAP) project and the new intervention from the government.
“We have made enough plans for both sides and for people that have paid, we are very much aware but we have had issues with clearing at the ports which the FG has come in to intervene and we have sent out communications to customers to manage such expectations,” Fogbonjaiye said.
He said that Mojec, today, is one of the largest meter suppliers in Nigeria, with international joint ventures and alliances with some of the world’s leading manufacturers in Asia and Europe and with eight out of eleven of the utilities in the Nigerian market using MOJEC’s meters.
“The brand has become a household name in the sector, with a significant footprint of over 70percent penetration in the Nigerian Electricity supply industry (NESI). In 2013, to further demonstrate our commitment to the growth of the sector, we built one of the largest meter assembly plants in West Africa with an installed production capacity of 1,200,000 meters annually,” he further said.
The industry regulator, Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), assured consumers that the Meter Asset Provider (MAP) programme will continue to run simultaneously with the new initiative and the Discos declared their full commitment to achieving the metering gap-filling goal.
Speaking to newsmen at the unveiling of the meters in Lagos, the Business Manager, Ikeja Electric, Oshodi Business Unit, Taofik Basaya, said that under the new initiative, customers are going to be metered without making any upfront payment, adding that about 106,701 meters were set to be deployed in the next two months across the six business units of Ikeja Electric.
“You know that the Federal Government has brought the initiative where it has told the masses that 6 million meters will be deployed to the network of all the Discos in the country. This is the arrangement that has started today and it is going to be done in two phases.
The first phase is the one we are in now and under it, the FG is going to roll out 1 million meters and that is to all Discos in the country and out of the one million meters, 106,701 meters is coming to Ikeja Electric and we are commencing the installation today,” Basaya said.
According to him, “The manner in which it is going to be done is called one-day metering and we will visit a particular estate and all the customers that have not been metered will apply, be surveyed, then make payments and the meter installed on the same day which is what we are doing at Victory Estate today.”
“The MAP programme that is ongoing is not going to be scrapped as this initiative will run concurrently with the NMMP initiative and so the two will run together. We are working with MAPs on this new initiative as well. This is just the pilot scheme in which we will be deploying about 298 meters and so the others will be moved to different streets soon and so this is not limited to estates alone,” he further said.
