- FG and CBN would fund the prepaid meters production upon completion of Phase 0 of the National Mass Metering Programme.
- The NMMP is part of the Federal Government’s effort to bridge the metering gap and cushion the service-reflective tariff’s effect on electricity consumers in Nigeria.
In collaboration with the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Federal Government has said it would finance the production of four million prepaid meters locally. The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) disclosed this in the ‘2022 Market Competition Report’ released recently.
According to the report, FG and CBN would fund the prepaid meters production upon completion of Phase 0 of the National Mass Metering Programme (NMMP). The report, however, did not reveal how much they would set aside for the project.
The report read in part, “Following the completion of Phase 0 of the NMMP (scope is the rollout of about one million meters), the Commission has commenced engagement with relevant stakeholders to kick off Phase 1 of the NMMP. Phase 1 is designed to provide FGN-CBN financing to DisCos to procure 4 million meters from Local Meter Manufacturers and Assemblers.”
The NMMP is part of the Federal Government’s effort to further bridge the country’s metering gap and cushion the service-reflective tariff’s effect on electricity consumers in Nigeria. Furthermore, NERC explained that the meter acquisition fund in pursuit of the December 2022 Tariff Order was to mitigate the risk of financing outside the electricity market.
“The fund will be administered centrally by a Fund Manager approved by the commission and used as securitisation for long-term financing for meter deployments to fast-track the closure of the end-users metering gap in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry. Metering of customers remains a priority for NESI, especially given its impacts on improving customers’ satisfaction, energy accounting, revenue assurance and overall improvement in the financial viability of NESI,” the report added.