The 25% import duty slammed on meters imported into Nigeria has cast doubts on the possibility of closing the metering gap of 4.6 million electricity consumers in the country.
Some Meter Access Providers ( MAP) are worried that their imported meters are stuck at the port on the back of the 25% duty hike by the Custom, and some of them raised the concern at a recent engagement with the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).
Chuks Nwani, an Energy Lawyer who consults for some MAPS, told Businessday that they had agreed to make an official documentation with the regulator on the issue to address their concern.
“As we speak now, there are several imported meters from the Meter Asset Providers that are stuck at the Port due to the 25% hike. This has made the closure of the metering gap weak, while also threatening the closing of the metering access,” Nwani, told Businessday.
The Federal government, through the NERC, had worked out a model through the MAP, to enable unmetered Nigerians get metered as part of measures to address the liquidity concern already threatening the electricity
sector. The MAP regulation commenced on the 1st of May 2019.
Adetokunbo Kayode, the President of Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry, expressed worry while speaking to Businessday, that Nigeria won’t make appreciable progress in closing the metering gap, adding that “Metering concerns cold have been addressed if there were more local companies producing meters in the country.”
Kayode told Businessday further that: “Through the Nigerian-russian Business Council, we have been exploring options of ensuring we attract huge investments into Nigeria, taking advantage of the forums like this. We are already talking to investors in meter manufacturing to come into Nigeria to enable more metering manufacturing.”
Businessday findings revealed that only Mojec and Mammas are the key metering companies assembling meters in the country. Most other companies who are merely importing the equipment are squeezed by the 25% duty.
NERC, according to the MAP Regulations, is expected to sanction licencees, who did not meet up with the task of metering their franchise areas.
Industry analysts had noted that the MAPS cannot meet up with the metering obligations of providing smart meters to homes, considering all these concerns, even as they called on the to find alternative options in metering electricity consumers.
“In the United States, for instance, there is still the option of post-paid metering ,where the regulators go after households that don’t have meters and collect their pay per monthly or bi-weekly depending on the arrangements,” Emeka Okpukpara, lead partner at NEXIER Power, told Businessday.
He noted further that the regulator could explore the option of post-paid if providing meter access was not enjoying the expected success.
“The Regulator in their Performance improvement Plan signed with the Discos could explore options of ensuring that the Discos insert a software that enables them know the power that enters each household to enable them monitor consumed power for appropriate billing and payments,” Okpukpara noted further.
Oyebode Fadipe, the spokesperson for Abuja Electricity Distribution Company, told Businessday that the MAPS in their Franchise areas covering Niger, Kogi, Nassarawa, and FCT had been attending to customers to close metering gap.
