How Mojec is building a world of possibilities in Nigeria’s power sector

Chantelle Abdul, the group managing director/chief executive officer, MOJEC International

Globally, thriving enterprises sprout on the identification of problems and flourish by proffering solutions to the problems for commensurate remuneration. This is where the win-win philosophy appeals to mankind the most.

This ideology might have inspired a frontline Nigerian corporate citizen, Mojec International Limited, a wholly indigenous company to approach its business operations with an eye toward solving problems within the energy sector. The company has a strong footprint in Nigeria, Africa, and the Middle East, where it is delivering on smart meter manufacturing, clean energy, and other business areas. This is just one of the firsts, as Mojec is the only player in the energy sector to have such footprints across the world.

Chantelle Abdul, the group managing director/chief executive officer, MOJEC International, pinned the company’s history of firsts on its innovative drive, which has seen it deliver consistently on its corporate mantra of “Building a world of possibilities in the midst of impossibilities”.

According to Abdul the numerous issues plaguing the Nigerian power sector are not pretty difficult to identify. To mitigate these challenges, the GMD noted that, “Mojec has intensified efforts towards ensuring a level of stability in the power sector. Our priority has been to see Nigerians have access to electricity, as well as paying for only what they consume”.

Driven by this vision, Mojec has risen to become “the largest manufacturer, distributor, installer of smart metering, power generation and energy solutions services provider in all of Sub-Saharan Africa,” Abdul added.

The company also pioneered the introduction of smart meters in the country and painstakingly delivered with its production and installation capacity which have come in handy in helping to propagate the objectives of the Federal Government of Nigeria’s (FGN) agenda, in the areas of increasing Nigeria’s metering rate; increasing local meter manufacturing capacity to strengthen the local meter value chain; creating jobs in the local meter value chain, and supporting the Nigerian economy by eliminating erratic billings.

Another historical first of the Group is pioneering the Mobile MAP initiative, its meter penetration and partnership idea, with which the Mojec Meter Asset Management Company Limited (M3AC) has been pushing to get more Nigerians conveniently metered.

This initiative has seen Mojec partner with as many as nine out of the 11 power distribution companies (DisCos) across the country. In pursuit of this and other astute strategies, Mojec has produced and installed over one million smart meters in the Nigerian market, which is another first.

She pointed out that the company is the market leader who pioneered, led and introduced Vendor Financing to the sector, which enabled five DisCos to roll out hundreds of thousands of meters for the first time ever in the history of the sector, post-privatization. “No single company has contributed largely to closing the Nigerian metering gap as Mojec has done,” Abdul stated.

Mojec’s investment in technology and human capital are also historical firsts. According to Abdul-Hakeem Balogun, director of resources, Mojec International Group, the company pioneered the rollout of the Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) into the Nigerian electricity sector and has the largest number of meters connected to AMI nationwide. The AMI system is the key enabler technology made up of smart meters, communication networks, and Meter Data Management System (MDMS).

With the AMI platform, the meter communicates and updates data per hour, enabling regular feedback from each connected meter to the DisCos. The AMI delivers information like the load profile and instantaneous energy data from the meter including voltage, current, frequency, and other information on the consumption of the consumers remotely.

These details enable someone at the back end not just to see, but to gain access into the readings of deployed smart meters to ensure accurate billings. With this technology, Mojec has been rolling out smart meters as far back as 2011 and currently has over 8,000 meters deployed and monitored remotely.

“We are the first metering company to have functional AMI System and Smart Meters in over five DisCos. This is backed by our being the only metering company with a strong team of Engineers embedded with the DisCos to help with professional pre-installation assessment, installation, maintenance, and service support for our smart meters,” Abdul-Hakeem stated.

The company’s audacious investments in research and development guarantee that these initiatives are sustained at peak quality with local adaption, which makes the smart meters extremely durable.

“Mojec boasts of 99.999 percent Product Quality Assurance (PAQ). Our product quality guarantee is founded on our robust R&D team which gives significant input to modify standard metering of our Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) Partner by adapting the meters with Nigerian local factors to make our products robust and durable,” Abdul-Hakeem stated.

With the AMI system, which the company currently deploys in partnership with the Port Harcourt DisCo, Ibadan DisCo, Ikeja DisCo, EKO DisCo, Enugu DisCo, Abuja DisCo, Yola DisCo, and Jos DisCo, the system allows for automation and enables utilities to be able to remotely read, monitor as well as manage revenue collection,” Abdul-Hakeem highlighted.

Olufunso Adeolu, the corporate communications manager, Mojec International Group, in his contribution pinpointed the need to ensure customer satisfaction and value for money as the rationale behind the company developing these innovations and working closely with the DisCos.

This strategy has seen Mojec deploy over 5,000 meter installers across Nigeria. These are some of the factors, according to Adeolu that underpin Mojec’s status as “the largest manufacturer, distributor, installer of smart metering, power generation and energy solutions in all of Sub-Saharan Africa”.

Recall that in 2020, the Federal Government initiated the National Mass Metering Program in partnership with indigenous meter manufacturers, Mojec International Ltd being the most prominent amongst them.

The company’s inclusion in the project was based on its demonstrated ability to boost the capacity and production of meters locally while hiring and equipping Nigerians with the requisite skills in the sector.

Stakeholders in the Nigerian power sector, aver that the company demonstrated leadership in this NMMP Phase 0 scheme by producing and installing over 350 thousand meters, and also creating over 300 jobs under its manufacturing arm (MI & M3AC).

It was gathered that M3AC has created the largest installation network across Nigeria, with over 5,000 installers actively engaged in its network.

The company set up a state-of-the-art electricity meter plant in the country with a production capacity of over 2,400,000 meters annually designed to serve the local African markets, the EMEA, and other neighbouring markets. The factory is fully equipped to handle customer demand.