The MAPs began operation on May 1, to provide meters to 4,606,106 electricity consumers and further reduce the metering gap

SEVEN weeks after the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, ordered the Meter Asset Providers, MAPs, to provide prepaid meters to consumers in the country, many households are yet to be metered. Many consumers are ignorant of the process of procuring meters for use under the new metering arrangements put in place by the government in April 2018.

The MAPs began operation on May 1, to provide meters to 4,606,106 electricity consumers and further reduce the metering gap in the country, but their operations remained sketchy. The reason being that not many of the MAPs is known to the consumers.

This development has made it difficult for the consumers to know the exact time they are going to be provided meters. This is coupled with the fact that the mode of payment for the meters by the consumers has remained unclear.

Although the firms, including Abuja Electricity Power Distribution Company, Ikeja Electric, Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company, BEDC, Benin Electricity Distribution Company, IBEDC, and a few others are believed to have rolled out meters to some areas in their jurisdictions, in conjunction with the MAPs they partnered in order to ensure the success of the scheme, the issue of metering in the Nigerian power sector is still a problem.

Investigations by Realnews revealed that consumers are in a fix as regards the ability of the Discos and MAPs to successfully meter the country, coupled with the fact   that power firms are complaining of lack of funds for operation. All the six electricity generation companies, Gencos, and the 11  power distribution companies, DisCos, that came out of the  defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, during the privatisation of the power sector in 2013, are grappling with debts estimated to be over N1 trillion.

This has made many to conclude that metering the country by the power firms and their partners (meter asset providers) is a farfetched objective. A visit to some business units owned by Ikeja Electric and Eko Disco said it all.

However, many firms have risen in defence of the scheme. Muhideen Ibrahim, executive secretary, Electricity Meter Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, EMMAN, said the names of the meter asset providers approved by the government and their partners are in the public domain.  According to him, their numbers, duties and partners, which are mainly the 11 Discos are published in the newspapers.

The firms, Muhideen noted, have demonstrated the ability to provide meters to customers nationwide, by bringing more meters into the country.  He explained that his members have doubled their production in order to ensure that the new metering scheme succeeds, adding that their capacity to do the job is not in doubt. On funding, he said many of the meter asset providers had discussed with their banks, with a view to get enough facility for operation.

Also, Kola Balogun, managing director, Momas Electricity Meter Manufacturing Company Limited, said the metering arrangement, which gave the MAPs the nod to supply meters to Nigerians and further reduce the metering gap of 4.1 million customers, would help in reducing metering gap in the country.

“The most important thing is that the metering gap would be very small as years roll by. This is good for the sector, which has battled metering problems for decades. The meter manufacturers, suppliers and importers of the product are better for it. The reason is because the idea would help in creating employment opportunities for the teeming population,” he said

Balogun advised Nigerians to think less of the problems faced by the metering scheme, adding that now that the sector has enough potential to ake the scheme work. According to him, consumers can pay for the pre-paid meter willingly and can as well choose to spread the payment over a period of time.

Felix Ofolue, the spokesperson for Ikeja Electric, said many people were yet to be metered because there is liquidity problem in the sector. Based on this, it remains to be seen whether consumers are going to be metered now or not.

– June 21, 2018 @ 15:49 GMT |