In new rule, DisCos will refund meter payments under MAPs through energy credits

Electricity distribution companies (DisCos) will over the next five years refund payments made by customers under the Meter Asset Providers (MAPs) Regulation as part of the options to align MAPs with the national metering plan.

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) on October 30 issued an order stating that the MAPs Regulation will be amended to align with the Federal Government’s National Mass Metering Programme (NMMP) which obligates electricity companies to fully meter all customers.

“All investments made in the provision of end-use customer meters under the Federal Government’s National Mass Metering Programme (NMMP) financed by the Central Bank of Nigeria shall be included in the regulatory asset base of the DisCos for the purpose of setting tariffs,” NERC said in an order issued October 30.

The regulator further said that the Meter Asset Provider regulation would be amended in alignment with the NMMP initiative to include the following provisions:

“Customers who have earlier paid for meters under the MAP Regulations shall be refunded through energy credits over a period not exceeding five years

“The payment for meters by customers through upfront payments OR monthly Meter Service Charge as provided in the subsisting MAP regulation shall cease.”

Isaac Anyaogu

Isaac Anyaogu is an Assistant editor and head of the energy and environment desk. He is an award-winning journalist who has written hundreds of reports on Nigeria’s oil and gas industry, energy and environmental policies, regulation and climate change impacts in Africa. He was part of a journalist team that investigated lead acid pollution by an Indian recycler in Nigeria and won the international prize - Fetisov Journalism award in 2020. Mr Anyaogu joined BusinessDay in January 2016 as a multimedia content producer on the energy desk and rose to head the desk in October 2020 after several ground breaking stories and multiple award wining stories. His reporting covers start-ups, companies and markets, financing and regulatory policies in the power sector, oil and gas, renewable energy and environmental sectors He has covered the Niger Delta crises, and corruption in NIgeria’s petroleum product imports. He left the Audit and Consulting firm, OR&C Consultants in 2015 after three years to write for BusinessDay and his background working with financial statements, audit reports and tax consulting assignments significantly benefited his reporting. Mr Anyaogu studied mass communications and Media Studies and has attended several training programmes in Ghana, South Africa and the United States