By Oyibo Salihu Lokoja
Following the inability of the Electricity Distribution Companies (DISCOs) to provide meter all the houses of consumers across the country, the federal government will soon dole out no fewer than 3 million prepaid metres as part of its intervention programme to alleviate the suff ering of consumers who have been bleeding over estimated billings. Th e Minister of Power, Works, and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, who disclosed this over the weekend, said the Nigeria that the government had in 2003 awarded contract for the meters but they were not supplied. “In 2003, the government awarded a contract for three million meters but they were not supplied. I inherited it, they were in court and I am trying to take it out of the court so that we can settle and start the supply,’’ he said stressing that the distribution fi rms were having diffi culty meeting the meter need of Nigerians.
“Th ere is a database of six million households; it is a faulty base because we have more than six million households in the country. Th ere are four types of consumers – R1 (poorest consumer), R2, R3 and maximum demand consumers — and they are not on the same plan.” Fashola observed that metering houses in the country was facing some challenges as there was no accurate database of actual consumers in the country. “DISCOs need to go into these houses, do an audit to determine the type of meters to install.
If you have a wrong meter, you will pay wrong price or bill. A meter is both a safety device and a measuring device; it can under read or over read or cause fi re if not properly installed. “Essentially, the DISCOs must provide meters, it is only fair and let the consumer manage his consumption and billing system because he has a meter,” the minister said and described the problems as man-made. Further, he identifi ed planning, way of life and human behavioural problem as some of the intractable issues as well as power wastage, building of houses in diffi cult terrain without approval, lack of conservation culture and energy theft. “Some people will put on a 70 or 120-watt bulb as security light for 24 hours, including the daytime when they do not need it and it is because they have either stolen the energy or bypassed their meters. “Th ey are robbing DISCOs of huge sums of money as they may not be able to pay back the energy they bought for distribution,” the minister said. According to an agency reports that electricity consumers pay N25,000 (offi cial), N35, 000 (fasttrack) for a single-phase meter, while the three-phase models go for N50,000 and above. Consumers have complained of down payment for several months or a year for the meters without being supplied by DISCOs which has exposed consumers to the userunfriendly estimated billing system or “crazy’’ bills. In Ghana, prepayment metering was introduced in 1994 and the importation of the meters cost Ghana government $99.2 million in 2015.
