A poll was conducted across The Electricity Hub’s social media platforms to determine the level of accuracy electricity customers believe their bills are.
Customers were asked to select an option from three variables – accurate, not accurate and metered. An average of the results collected revealed that 49.9 per cent of electricity customers are metered, 50.10 per cent are still on estimated billing. Out of the customers on estimated billing, 43.25 per cent assert to being charged inaccurately. In comparison, a meagre 6.85 per cent feel they are charged accordingly to the amount of electricity they consume.
What does this finding infer?
The sole objective of the metering initiatives in Nigeria is to ensure that customers are no longer given estimated bills and to ensure a level of transparency in the electricity supply industry. To this effect, Credited Advanced Payment for Metering Installation (CAPMI), Meter Asset Provider (MAP), and the current National Mass Metering Programme (NMMP) has been implemented.
NMMP was instituted in September of 2020, and its prime features included that the electricity distribution companies (DisCos) are required to roll out six (6) million “free” meters over a time frame of 18 – 36 months to unmetered customers.
Under this arrangement, the mass metering of one million customers was scheduled for October 2020 to April 2021. However, in March 2021, when the Senate Committee on Power evaluated the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) on the scheme, the committee expressed disappointment with the dismal performance (learn more).
Following this review, in May, the commission released that the one million meters rollout plan was at 85 per cent to completion.
To sum up, from the poll data, it is evident that electricity customers are getting metered. However, a larger percentage of the customers are still on the estimated billing system, with a vast majority of them expressing doubts about the accuracy of their utility bills.