The Federal Government, in collaboration with state governments, has raised N100 billion to procure prepaid electricity meters under the Presidential Meter Initiative.
This was disclosed by the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu while addressing broadcasters in Ibadan, the Oyo State, according to The Punch.
Adelabu emphasized that the initiative is part of the broader efforts by President Bola Tinubu’s administration to address Nigeria’s metering gap and ensure greater transparency in the power sector.
The minister highlighted that many electricity consumers have been reluctant to pay their bills, citing concerns over unfair estimated billing by power distribution companies.
The procurement of prepaid meters is expected to enhance transparency and accountability, ensuring that consumers are billed accurately for their electricity usage.
“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.
Commenting on the government attempt to close the meter gap, he explained, “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 said in addition to the N100 billion raised by the Federal Government and states for prepaid electricity meters, the World Bank has committed to providing nearly two million meters to Nigeria over the next two years through the Distribution Sector Recovery Programme
He revealed that $200 million of the $500 million allocated to DISREP will be dedicated to meter procurement.
“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 expounded.
He added that the sale of meters has been liberalised by allowing the DisCos to allow their customers to buy directly from the vendors.
He also acknowledged that the cost of meters has risen because of the exchange rates.
