The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, has said the federal government will patronise prepaid meters from local manufacturers.
This will help fill the meter gap in Nigeria and help local businesses grow.
He visited Momas Electricity Meters Manufacturing Company Ltd. (MEMMCOL) in Mowe, Ogun State, and said it’s important to keep making meters locally.
The government plans to install two to 2.5 million meters each year for the next five years. Adelabu asked everyone to work together to achieve this goal.
He mentioned President Bola Tinubu’s plan for “Renewed Hope” and said supporting local companies fits with that plan.
Adelabu also talked about making laws to make sure power projects use materials made in Nigeria. He promised to help local companies get money and training to grow.
Adelabu said, ”I visited the meters manufacturing company to see how they can be supported. It’s part of my visit to see how they can be supported through the meter expansion programme of the Ministry of Power. We know that Nigeria is a highly import-dependent country, and this is one of the reasons our currency has lost value.
But it is one of the intentions of the government to ensure we are back on the import substitution journey and the only way we can do this is to support local manufacturers.
Apart from support, we must also grant them incentives by providing a conducive atmosphere that we make their production activities in terms of cost to be competitive.”
MOMAS is a local meter-making company praised by Adelabu.
MOMAS’s CEO, Mr Kola Balogun, thanked the minister and asked for more help from the government.
He said MOMAS can make good meters and even sell them to other countries. But he said they need more support from Nigeria to keep going.
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Balogun said, “We design meters from scratch and our capability in this regard is not in doubt because we complied with all the various standards that Nigeria has set and also global best practices in terms of design.
“Virtually all DisCos are our partners. We also supply meters to Liberia, Sierra Leone and other African countries, but the volume Nigeria needed supersedes any volume in Africa.”
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