Electricity metering has been one of the major bottlenecks in the Nigerian power sector for decades. Although several initiatives such as CAPMI, MAP, and the current NMMP have been implemented, only 40.27% of the 10,516,090 registered electricity customers in the country being metered as of 30 June 2020.
Among the solutions put in place to bridge the metering gap was the commissioning of meter service providers by NERC to foster meter manufacturing in Nigeria and create employment for the youths.
It would also be interesting to know that NERC issued 108 companies with metering MAP licences; however, only 22 out of these companies have deals to supply meters to the 11 DisCos. Despite this, preferential treatment limited major suppliers to about two companies.
More than half of the electricity customers in Nigeria remain unmetered as electricity meters lie dormant in warehouses. According to the Guardian, who carried out this finding, several meter assemblers have meters worth over ₦300m in stock struggling for patronage. This situation has left the meter manufacturers no other choice than to export their meters to other African countries.
Why are customers still charged through estimated billing when there are meters not in use? The senate, in March, grilled NERC over poor metering performance, and the challenge was attributed to the late disbursement of funds for the DisCos. However, they promised to improve their performance by April, and now this discovery has been brought to light.