The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has said the Federal Government’s national mass metering programme would not halt the third-party meter providers who have raised private capital and working with distribution companies (Discos) to meter unmetered Nigerians.
The Meter Asset Provider (MAP) regulations came into effect on April 2018 through the NERC, empowering third-party meter providers to invest in bridging the huge metering gap in the country. The policy although recorded some progress has been marred by 35 percent duty that got several imported meters stuck at the port, and still yet to be released despite a presidential directive to that effect.
The Federal Government and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) have commenced the national mass metering programme, a move that is expected to close metering gap of about 10 million consumers in the country, enhance efficiency in revenue collection and drive a credible electricity market that attracts investors
Speaking with BusinessDay, a NERC commissioner for engineering performance and monitoring, Frank Okafor, dispelled the fears that the third party meter providers empowered through the MAP Regulations in 2018 would have their operations halted on the back of the national mass metering programme. He said rather, the meter providers would still be supported by the government.
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“Why the third party metering option may not be running too fast, the government wants to use two stones to kill one bird. This is why the government is embarking on the deployment of immediate one million meters and the rest six million will be deployed through the local manufacturers to create jobs in the metering downstream sector.
The target, the commissioner explained, is to launch a major leap in closing the metering gap, affirming that the government’s key target is to continuously close the gap even as the consumer base keeps expanding.
On closing metering gap, he said: “The NERC got the distribution companies to declare what the metering gap is which they put at the range of 7 million. Now, there is one caveat, the metering gap is a moving target, as such it could be beyond that because of the emergence of new buildings, new structure and new consumers across the country.
President Muhammadu Buhari had assured immediate government funding for Discos to roll out 1,000,000 meters in the first phase, at no cost to the consumers, and would be sourced from local manufacturers and in-country stock to create jobs. Deployment has already started in parts of Kano, Kaduna, Lagos and Abuja.
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