The Senate has again expressed its dissatisfaction with the poor metering scheme by the various electricity distribution companies to consumers across the country.
Senator representing Benue North-East and Chairman Senate Committee on Power, Gabriel Suswam, made the remarks when his Committee visited the Nigerian Electricity Management Services Agency as part of their oversight functions.
NEMSA is saddled with the statutory role of enforcing technical standards and regulations in the power sector through inspection, testing and certification of electrical equipment and products.
Checks revealed that the federal government launched the National Mass Metering Programme in 2020, with the aim of increasing the country’s metering rate and eliminate arbitrary estimated billing.
The Central Bank of Nigeria is expected to provide financing support to the DiSCos and local manufacturers to produce meters for customers.
Suswam noted that despite the allocation of N33billion out of the N59billion set aside by the Central Bank of Nigeria to assist the local firms to produce the item, the volume in circulation fell short of expectations.
He said:” There is a presidential initiative that saddled the Central Bank of Nigeria with the responsibilities of providing money to those who are ready to start Metre manufacturing in the country.
“There is seed money at the CBN which they can take at single digit for them to be able to start manufacturing metre so that the issue of complaining of lack of meters and the issue of estimated billings will be a thing of the past.
“Many potential manufacturers of meters are already taking advantage of the initiative. There will be a lot of meter manufacturers in Nigeria within the next two years in Nigeria.
“The mass metering that has been initiated by the Federal Government has three stages.
“They are zero stage, phase one and Phase two. In phase one, the Meter Assets Provider that were contracted by the DISCOs is supposed to supply meters. They will import metres and keep them so that we can achieve a certain threshold.
“In phase one, the Central Bank of Nigeria is giving money only to those who are producing meters in Nigeria, which will come in towards the last quarter of this year.
“Those who want to produce meter has money sitting at the CBN which they will take at single-digit interest date percentage. Quite a number of them had been identified and they have started producing meters even in Abuja here.”
The Chairman Senate Committee on Power however expressed regret that because of the poor performance of the local manufacturers to meet up with production, the government had to concede to the DISCOs to import the item to meet up with the target of mass metering.
“There is no way we could wait till those people set up factories before we start deploying meters. So, we are importing meters now.
“About N59bn was set aside by the CBN but the sum of N33bn has been disbursed already and some meters have been produced even though the deployment has been very poor but that is ongoing.”
While he admitted that NEMSA has the capacity to carry out its functions, Senator Suswam lamented that the agency was being poorly funded.
‘They have the technical know-how to test all the electrical equipment coming into the country.
“The Act that sets up NEMSA empowers it to apply sanctions but it is not adequate. “What we are doing as a parliament is that we have initiated an Electricity Act for the country to take care of most of the infractions that go unpunished most of the time.”
In his remarks, Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of NEMSA, Peter Ewesor, said despite the availability of fund and inadequate personnel, the agency was determined to do everything within limited resources to meet public expectations.
“All those who have been bringing in meters from outside the country now have to establish factories in Nigeria now.
“We have actually certified well over 15 companies in the last nine months because they know that if they are not producing meters in Nigeria, they will not have access to the facilities that the government is providing through the CBN.
“NEMSA already have various metre testing centres across the geopolitical zones in the country and we have been effective in discharging our responsibilities despite the paucity of funds and inadequate personnel.”
