Adebayo Adelabu, minister of power, says the federal
government and the states have raised N100 billion for the procurement of
prepaid electricity meters.
Speaking on Tuesday at a press briefing in Ibadan, Oyo
state, Adelabu said this is part of the government’s efforts to close the
metering gap.
“Mr President has set up what we call the presidential meter
initiative (PMI) and set up a presidential meeting council to address this
issue,” he said.
“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 every year 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 seen about N100bn fund that will go
into the procurement of meters.”
The minister added that the World Bank decided to support
Nigeria with the procurement of almost two million meters in the next two years
through the distribution sector recovery programme.
Adelabu also said out of the $500 million World Bank loan
secured to boost electricity distribution, $200 million would be used for meter
procurement, and that had reached an advanced stage.
‘FG TO PROVIDE PREPAID METERS, CONSUMERS TO REPAY IN 10
YEARS’
Adelabu also said electricity consumers who get free prepaid
meters will have up to 10 years to repay the cost.
The minister said the cost of meters has been on the
increase due to the exchange rates.
He also said funding was a major challenge, however, he said
the federal government would fund the meter procurement through different
initiatives while the customers pay back over time.
“When the government starts procuring meters, we’ll give it
to the customers, and we’ll deduct the money over 10 years. In which case, you
will not even feel it at all,” Adelabu said.
PROCESS OF REPAYMENT
Adelabu explained further that a customer who bought an
energy credit of N5,000 might have N100 deducted for the ‘free’ meter he got
from the government.
“Probably, if you buy a credit of N5,000, maybe N100 will go
into the meter that we have given you. So, that’s what we are trying to do. We
bring these meters in and reduce the gap that we have in the meters,” he added.
The minister also said many customers are not paying their
bills because they believe they are being cheated by the power distribution
companies through estimated billing, hence metering would ensure transparency.
“Out of over the 12 million electricity customers we have in
Nigeria, only a little over five million is metered. We have over a seven
million meter gap today, and these are self-inflicted problems,” he said.
Adelabu added that the sale of meters has been liberalised
by allowing customers to buy directly from the vendors and not just the
electricity distributing companies (DisCos).
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