Ikeja, Abuja, Eko DisCos, Lead Meter Deployment Chart in Q1, 2024

Three Electricity Distribution Companies(DisCos), namely Ikeja Electric(IE), Abuja and Eko have sustained efforts towards making pre-paid meter available to consumers of electricity.

During the first quarter of the year, a total of 179,792 meters were reportedly installed by existing 11 DisCos. Ikeja Electric, installed meters for 73 per cent of its customers while Abuja DisCo 61 per cent and Eko DisCo installing 59 per cent.

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, (NERC), in its data, showed that there are 13.37 million registered electricity consumers as at the end of March, 2024.

Out of that figure only 5.989 million have meters, representing 44.78 per cent, showing thus that there is a deficit of some 7.4 million electricity consumers are presently without meters in the Nigerian Electricity Market.

This shows a five per cent rise in the rate of meter installations to 179,792 in the first quarter of 2024, compared to 171,107 installed in the same period last year.

According to a breakdown of meter installations in the first three months of this year showed that 56,994 meters were installed in March while 79,837 and 42,961 meters were installed in February and January, respectively.

The minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu, during the first quarter of the year presented new options being considered by the federal government to achieve its mass metering initiatives based on timeline it has set for the initiative.

One of the considerations is to mop up available meters assembled in-country and incentivize indigenous meter manufacturers to enhance their plant capacities to meet demand structure of the Presidential Metering Initiative(PMI).

Adelabu, said President Bola Tinubu, has instructed that Nigeria’s import dependency would be significantly minimized before it would eventually be ended.

The Minister who was on a working visit and inspection tour of Mojec Group, a major stakeholder in the power sector, said in addition to repositioning the meter production sector, a new Bill to promote local content implementation in the power sector is being perfected for consideration by the National Assembly.

He said that importation of goods especially smart prepaid meters is inimical to national development, employment generation and economic growth and that 90 per cent of the current hardship in Nigeria was caused by the country’s import dependence.

The Minister further said the Presidential Metering Initiative (PMI), is making move to embark on bulk procurement of smart meters, the development of indigenous Meter Data Management Systems (MDMS), and the reduction of Aggregated Technical and Commercial (ATC&C) losses to improve the efficiency and reliability of the energy infrastructure in Nigeria.

He said though the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, is not presently considering special intervention options because of issues arising from previous uncoordinated interventions but he is in talks with the CBN, to consider the dire demand of the sector and provide the necessary support for local meter manufacturers.

Earlier, Group Managing Director of MOJEC Group, Chantelle Abdul, said Nigeria will face serious energy challenges in the next two decades except proactive measures are considered to deal with seeming problems being presented by the sector.

Abdul, said the anticipated local content drive being advocated by the Minister will go a long way to strengthen local manufacturers who are in need of intervention by government.

She informed the Minister that despite bank guarantees by Electricity Distribution Companies, DisCos, MOJEC has spearheaded deployment of meters at its own risk across the country.

According to her, about 5 million per-paid electricity meters so far installed under different government meter deployment initiatives, her company is responsible for 50 per cent of the number so achieved.

She said, the group is ready to enhance present installed meter production capacity to meet demand level by the PMI.

Abdul said, her firm is inching towards increasing local content component of its meter assembly from 40 per cent to over 60 per cent and fully attain 100 per cent as urged by the minister.

The Minister had earlier noted the substantial metering gap in Nigeria, and that citizens are tired of estimated billing.

“Before the end of this year, we are looking at the possibility of ending estimated billing because we want transparency and objectivity in our billing system,” adding that, the Presidential metering initiative will harmonise all metering acquisitions in the country.

He stated that, “We have up to eight million meters gap in Nigeria and what the initiative seeks to achieve is to close this gap within three to five years. This means that an average of two million meters is required on a yearly basis and achieving the target is compulsory for citizens to enjoy stable power supply,’’

According to him, the Meter Assets Providers (MAPs) would equally have to provide a minimum number of 2,000 meters to participate in the market.

He stated that Nigeria should be self-reliant, adding that Nigeria has a market for its products.

According to him, “In the industry, a little over five million customers are metered. We have a metering gap of about eight million customers and this huge meter gap is a major problem because the majority of the customers are still on estimated billing. We believe it is not fair because they feel they are being cheated if they cannot validate how they are being billed”.

He explained that, as part of effort to solve the metering problem, President Bola Tinubu has recently approved the use of N12 billion to meter army formations across the country.

The Federal Government had late last year taken concrete steps to bridge the metering gap by opening bids from 47 companies for the supply of 1.25 million electricity smart meters funded by World Bank’s $155 million loan.

The move was part of the government’s National Mass Metering Programme started in 2021 with the supply of one million meters in “phase -0”. The phase-1 of the project however failed to kick-off as the N200 billion funds expected from the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, failed to materialise.

This prompted the World Bank intervention of a $500 million loan for the phase-2 with the balance $345 million going directly to the electricity distribution companies, DisCos, to fund the expansion of the distribution networks across the country.?