- It is salutary that FG is seeking to bridge the electricity metering gap
One of the troubling issues in Nigeria’s reconfigured power sector today is the inability of the electricity distribution companies to bill consumers accurately for actual energy used. This state of affairs has brought untold agonies to electricity users as well as has been a source of long-standing disputes between providers and consumers.
Since the Federal Government unbundled the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) and divested finally in November 2013, consumers and operators of distribution companies have been at loggerheads over the continued use of estimated and ‘crazy’ bills by distribution firms. The situation is further compounded by the fact that the Federal government had, through the old PHCN metered some consumers, thus proving that it was quite possible to do away with arbitrary billings. Yet the niggling issue remains unresolved despite numerous promises and failed deadlines from the power firms.
But there may be respite at last. Early in the week, Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola, held a meeting with both the local manufacturers of electricity meters and the distribution companies. The forum directed by the minister and his junior counterpart, Mustapha Baba Shehuri, had one clear agenda: the need for distribution companies to patronise local manufacturers of meters.
In the last two years, power firms and local manufacturers of meters have bickered to no end over whether to import or deploy meters produced in Nigeria. The local meter manufacturers and stakeholders insist that they had set up production capacity and had indeed started to roll out before the 2013 final handover of the power firms.
They insist that it would be unpatriotic, if not callous, of the distribution companies to jettison all the efforts and work they (meter manufacturers) had put in place and resort to massive and wholesale importation of meters. The costs to them and the consequences to the country and the power sector are debilitating, to say the least. Apart from their immediate losses, they note that Nigeria would miss so much in terms of loss of jobs, missed opportunities in acquiring technical know-how and getting optimal benefits from the fledgling power sector.
Power distribution companies on the other hand, have stalled in working with the local meter companies, as they claim, because they cannot deliver both the quality and quantity required for massive rollout of meters to consumers. In fact, a few firms have already imported and installed sophisticated meters in some zones of the country. They point out that the imported meters would curb debilitating electricity thefts currently going on.
With over three million metering gap still to be filled in the country, the intervention of the FederalGovernment is quite important at this juncture. Consumers are desirous of accurate billings through metering; power firms need quality meters which would minimise power loss while local meter firms seek to participate in the potentially large power sector and deservedly so.
It is for the above contending reasons that we laud the Federal Government’s intervention in the fray. As Fashola said at the meeting, local meter manufacturers need to think outside the box by being innovative in order to reap from the fledgling electricity industry. The need to domesticate meter manufacturing cannot be overemphasised. The attendant opportunities are too numerous for any serious country to throw away. We urge the power firms to bend a little backwards to accommodate the local players, especially at this teething stage. We are already importing too many things into the country.
All said however, the Federal Government needs to provide ample enablement for the local players at this early stage to develop capacity and grow. This can come by way of soft loans to the serious ones. But more importantly, purchase agreements, and if need be, ban on meter importation, may become necessary.
