N100bn Meter Deal: FG and States Unite to Tackle Electricity Billing Crisis

The Federal and State governments have procured N100 billion for the procurement of prepaid electricity meters.
Minister of Energy, Adebayo Adelabu said this was done under the Presidential Meter Initiative Programme.
Adelabu disclosed this in a conversation with a station monitored by reporters in Ibadan, the Oyo state capital.
He said President Bola Tinubu’s administration is working to bridge the metering gap in Nigeria and is undertaking various initiatives.
He said many electricity customers are skeptical about their bills, believing that the distribution companies are taking advantage of them by using estimated bills. He added that the installation of meters would provide greater transparency, enabling customers to pay for only the power they consume.

“Out of over the 12 million electricity customers we have in Nigeria, only a little over five million is metered. We have over seven million meter gap today, and these are self-inflicted problems,” Adelabu explained.
On government efforts to close the meter gap, he said, “Mr President has set up what we call the Presidential Meter Initiative and set up a Presidential Meeting Council to address this issue. He made me the chairman of this council. The SA on Energy to Mr President is the secretary of the council. The mandate we have was to procure and install a minimum of two million meters on a yearly basis over the next five years.
“In the PMI, we have made good progress in sourcing the fund for this, and it is going to be by a combination of the federal and state governments. Today, we have received and we have seen about N100bn that will go into the procurement of meters.”

He added that the World Bank has decided to help Nigeria procure close to 2 million meters over the next two years as part of its Distribution Sector Reconstruction Programme.
He revealed that $200 million of the $500 million DISREP fund will be used for the procurement of meters, saying this has reached an advanced stage.
“In fact, for the World Bank, we have issued contract awards. It’s just for them to start bringing the meters from overseas and locally. Because of the capacity requirements, we cannot just depend on local patronage alone. We must bring it from other clients where it’s even cheaper. Even our assemblers are bringing the parts, which are the SKDs or the CKDs, (completely knocked down parts or semi-knocked down parts). Then we also encourage our local manufacturers.
“So it’s a combination of international competitive bidding and national competitive bidding. Before the end of the year, they will start bringing the meters in,” he posited. he speculated.
He added that DISCOs have liberalized the sale of meters, allowing customers to buy directly from vendors.
He also acknowledged that the exchange rate has increased the cost of meters.
“The meter that was going for N80,000 before probably is about N120,000 now. That’s the reality. What now matters most is the funding of this,” he said.