Chairman and Managing Director of Protogy Global Services, Ademola Agoro, recently played host to the Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu in his meter manufacturing factory in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.
Agoro, who took the Minister and his entourage on a tour of various sections of the factory disclosed that the company currently runs on about 1.2 million units of meter production capacity per year.
Agoro, a Fellow of Nigeria Society of Engineer (FNSE), expressed confidence in the company’s capacity to double the current production capacity with the support of the federal government of Nigeria.
Addressing journalists shortly after meeting with Adelabu, Agoro stated that the minister’s visit was timely and encouraging as it signals potential collaborations to enhance the company’s production capacity.
Agoro disclosed further that all meters including single, double, and three phased meters as well as Maximum Demand meters, Feeder meters and Distribution Transformer meters produced at Protogy Global Services are smart meters that can be controlled remotely by the consumers.
Agoro expressed delight at the Minister’s visit which he said was entirely on a fact finding mission adding that local meter manufacturers the country would be encouraged with deepened synergy and collaborations occasioned by such visit as he hopes his company gets patronage by the federal government of Nigeria.
He said:”Today, the Honourable Minister came to our factory on a fact finding mission to see their for themselves and the capacity of the company in the area of meter manufacturing.
“My delight after the Minister’s visit is that he has been able to see things for himself and he has promised, not only us, but all local meter manufacturers will be patronised by the federal government, and he has also promised to use his office to make sure everything that is hindering effective local meter manufacturing in Nigeria is addressed.
“He has assured that the federal government is going to patronise us to be able to deliver good and quality meters to Nigerians,” Agoro said.
Also addressing journalists, the minister said his visit to the factory was a working and inspection visit to one of the local meter manufacturers in Ibadan to assess their facilities and the process of assembling meters locally.
Adelabu, who thanked Mr Ademola Agoro for hosting his team to a tour of the production factory, explained that the visit was part of the Ministry’s way of showing local meter manufacturers support and the needed encouragement, describing the manufacturers as the gateway to import substitution and export promotion stressing the need to patronize and consume what is produced locally.
The Minister, who expressed satisfaction at what he saw at the factory in terms of quality, standard, and sophistication said, patronizing local meter manufacturers in Nigeria would ease the pressure on local currency.
“I’m quite impressed with the standard of facilities, the sophistication they employ in the assembly process of the meters, and I’ve made it known to them that the government is ready to support local meter manufacturers.
“First of all, by providing conducive environment for their operations in order to be competitive with their foreign counterparts, secondly, by ensuring they have access to foreign exchange as much as possible to aid importation of CKD or the SKD they use in the meter assembly, and also to be able to buy spare parts and tools that are useful in the assembly plants.
“Government should also be able to provide low interest rates loans from banks to aid their production because this kind of manufacturing requires huge funds and a lot of them can provide equity capital for them to survive and they will need some debt capital so, there must be access to low interest rates loans.” Adelabu said.
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