FG takes delivery of 1.5m smart metres, orders free distribution to electricity consumers

THE Federal Government said it has taken delivery of 1.5 million metres in the last few months, which are to be distributed freely to Nigerian electricity consumers.

The 1.5 million metres received in the first phase, the Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu, said, were part of the 3.4 million smart metres that the Federal Government imported under the World Bank-funded Distribution Sector Recovery Programme.

The minister disclosed this when carrying out a physical on-site inspection of shipments of the smart metres in APM Terminal in Apapa Port, in Lagos on Thursday.

The minister was received by the Customs Area Commander, Apapa Port Command, Emmanuel Osoba.

The minister, who was accompanied by the Director- General, Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE),  Mr.Ayo Gbeleyi and other senior staff from of the Ministry of Power, Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) and Nigeria Electricity Management Services Agency, disclosed that almost 150,000 meters have already been installed across customers out of one million smart meters received earlier.

Besides, the minister also inspected the newly built substation by the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to serve Apapa and environ and also carried out the inspection of tested smart meters at NEMSA warehouse in Alasia, Oshodi, Lagos

The minister gave a standing order that the smart meters should be

be installed and distributed to consumers free of charge, threatening to sanction any DisCos or metre installers that will flout the rule.

“This programme is supporting the Federal Government to import a total of 3.4 million metres.

“The first batch is a total of 1.43 million metres, out of which we have received close to about one million metres.

“Currently, almost 150,000 metres are already installed across customers, across all distribution companies in four corners of the country.

“What we have today is close to 500,000 metres that we just received the delivery of. And I’m quite happy with what we saw here,” the minister said.

With the imported smart metres, the minister said that the journey of completely eliminating the metre gap in the Nigerian power sector has just begun.

He disclosed that another initiative to close the nation’s metering gap is Presidential Metering Initiative, under which, he said, the government has target of procuring about 10 million meters over the next five years, with an average of  two million metres in a year.

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He noted that this would be the first time in the history of Nigeria that a government would be importing and buying locally this huge amount of metres to ensure that the power sector is completely transformed.

“We are optimistic that in a couple of years to come, every household, every business, every institution, and every industry will be fully metered so that billing and collections in the power sector will become more transparent, will be very fair, and will be very just. he said

 “And it will also improve the readiness of consumers of electricity to pay their bills; that will lead to improved liquidity in the sector.

When you have improved liquidity in the sector, the sectoral revenue will be able to pay a higher percentage of the energy costs in the industry, which will eventually lead to improvement in efficiency, improvement in effectiveness of operations, and we’ll be able to achieve the much-awaited stability, reliability, and functionality of electricity supply to our households, businesses, institutions, and industries.

“This will aid and accelerate our economic growth and industrial development,” Adelabu said.

“It will also improve the prosperity of our people, will create more jobs, will create more productivity, and revenues will be on the increase, and this will affect the standard of living of our people, while unemployment rates will be on the increase. I am quite excited and elated with what is happening, because it is quite unprecedented,” the minister added.

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“This is like walking the talk. Our target, reforming the sector, is not just verbal. We are actioning it and Nigerians could see that this is real, and it’s not just a promise of the talk.

The minister cautioned Discos on the need to install and distribute the metres to consumers without any additional cost.

“As unprecedented the numbers of metres imported are, the metres are to be installed and distributed to consumers free of charge.

“Nobody should collect money from any consumer. It is an illegality. It is an offence for the officials of distributing companies across Nigeria to request a dime before installation.

“Even the indirect installers cannot ask the consumers for a dime. It has to be installed free of charge so that buildings and collections will improve for the sector. This is the first phase,” the minister said.