BREAKING NEWS, Power
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The Association of Nigeria Electricity Distributors promises to patronise the products of local meter manufacturers
| By Anayo Ezugwu | Aug 8, 2016 @ 01:00 GMT |
THE electricity distribution companies, Discos, operating in Nigeria have denied the media reports that they have refused to patronise local meter manufacturers. Sunday Oduntan, executive director, Association of Nigeria Electricity Distributors, ANED, umbrella body of the Discos, assured local meter manufacturers of its members’ readiness to patronise the product to grow local contents.
According to Oduntan, three out of 11 Discos are currently patronising the indigenous meter manufacturers in the country. He added that the Discos purchased all the NERC-approved Credited Advance Payment for Metering Implementation, CAPMI, meters from local meter manufacturers.
CAPMI came about due to the slow pace of customer metering by the DISCOs, as well as the high level of complaints received from customers and dissatisfaction with the current estimated billing practices.
It provides a platform for willing customers to pay the cost of the meter into a dedicated account jointly managed by the DISCO and meter Vendor/Installer. Once payment has been effected, the customer will have their meter installed within 45 days, by an NERC accredited Vendor/Installer.
Oduntan said that Discos would have wished to patronise local manufacturers from the beginning of the privatisation if their prices were competitive and if they had the ability to do vendor financing. “The issue of metering is tied to payment; it is tied to money if we do not have money, how do we buy cash and carry?
“We are more than ready to patronise our local manufacturers. I know of three Discos that fully patronised them presently. We are aware that they put more into the production. Even our banks are not helping the situation because they are not financing these metering projects. We want the local content to grow and we are willing to partner with them and patronise them in the interest of Nigeria,” he said.
The executive director said that another area affecting local manufacturers was the bank interest rates. “Also some foreign partners are ready to collect money by instalment after it has been installed for consumers in Nigeria. It is in our interests to patronise our local manufacturers and I assure Nigerians that we will do that.”
The executive director said that Discos had installed at least 2.2 million households out of over five million households metering gap inherited after privatisation of defunct PHCN.
Babatunde Fashola, minister of power, works and housing, had in June urged the Discos to patronise local meter manufacturing companies in the country following scarcity of foreign exchange. The minister explained that such patronage was necessary to encourage the production of meters by the local manufacturing companies in the country and preserve scarce foreign exchange.
“Patronising the local meter manufacturing companies is the way to diversify and save foreign exchange,” he said.
According to Fashola, government would be distributing about 115,000 pre-paid meters across the nation this year alone while also expressing its commitment to ensure adequate power supply in the country soon next. He assured that the implementation of the nationwide metering system would open windows of opportunities of job creation to teeming unemployed youths.
Also, Muyideen Ibrahim, executive secretary, Electricity Meter Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, EMMAN, said most of its members had to retrench some of their staff because they could not sustain them due to poor patronage. EMMAN also complained that the low patronage by electricity distribution companies could result in non-sustainability of its business.
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