Two months after the Federal Government reached a truce with labour leading to the shelving of the planned strike against electricity tariff increase, and also announced a plan to provide free meters for electricity customers, Nigerians are still waiting at offices of power companies for elusive meters.
Electricity distribution companies (Discos) across the country say they are yet to begin allocating meters to customers, citing procurement challenges that are yet to be settled between the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) who will provide the funding, the meter providers and the Federal Government.
Other hitches, stakeholders told Businessday, include the fallouts of the ENDSARS protests which led to the shutdown of the country following which government officials were dispatched to their various states to resolve issues arising from the protests, which affected timelines.
“The programme is still on course, but it has been affected by several challenges,” said Joe Ajaero, a senior member of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) who signed the agreement with the government on behalf of labour to shelve the planned strike over electricity tariff increase.
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According to Ajaero, the members of the committee have visited some meter manufacturing plants across the country to understand their capacity to meet the government order but rollout could not commence due to unresolved issues. But he said negotiations were ongoing.
Abdulazeez Abdullahi, head, corporate communication at Kaduna Disco told Businessday since the announcement, the Disco was yet to receive any meters for distribution.
“I understand there was a delay in procurement, but for now, they are not available,” said Abdullahi.
Under the National Mass Metering Programme (NMMP), electricity customers will get six million free electricity meters which would first be launched in Kano, Kaduna, Eko, and Ikeja Disco franchise areas.
Ikeja Disco in a statement on October 30, said it has commenced the rollout of prepaid meters under the National Mass Metering Programme, approved by the Federal Government, with effect from today, Friday, October 30, 2020.10.30
“In line with this programme, Ikeja Electric Plc (IE) is committed to driving the rollout through a series of one-day metering initiatives across different locations in its network. This metering initiative is designed to ensure a seamless metering process that allows customers to register and be metered on the same day after following due process.
“For the first phase of the programme, which will run till the end of the year, Ikeja Electric is rolling out over 106,000 prepaid meters to customers across its six Business Units – Ikeja, AbuleEgba, Akowonjo, Oshodi, Ikorodu and Shomolu.
Adeoye Fadeyibi, managing director, Eko Disco who flagged off the programme at the Orile/ijora Districts in Surulere area of Lagos State, said:
“In the next 18 to 24 months, over six million meters will be distributed across households in the country and for us at Eko, we will be rolling out over 100,000 meters in the next few weeks in the first phase of the programme.’’
However, enquirers show that no customer has gotten a meter yet under this scheme despite these claims.
The NMMP is to roll out 6 million meters for all connection points on the grid without meters over the next 18 to 24 months. It is estimated that this will impact 30 million consumers.
The CBN approved guidelines for funding the mass metering program on October 18 and rollout would commencing. All meters in the programme are to be locally sourced.
The inability of the programme confirms the concern some had over what becomes of the Meter Asset Providers (MAPS), a programme wherein third party meter providers give customers meter for a fee. The vendors have been approved by NERC, areas designated along with Discos, and contracts are drawn up and this NMMP looks set to derail it.
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