The year 2023 marks a significant milestone in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI), the 10th year since its privatisation in 2013. The issue of inadequate metering in Nigeria has lingered for years. Metering, which is the responsibility of the distribution companies (DisCos) in the energy value chain, has encountered several setbacks despite government and private sector interventions. Sadly, the distribution arm of the energy value chain is believed to be the weakest because it is at the last mile of the chain. Of the Aggregate Technical, Commercial and Collection losses, the collection is still a big issue. Some Nigerians engage in illegal electricity connections and do not see the need to pay for it.
One of the identified working solutions to collection losses is adequate metering; however, more than half of electricity consumers in Nigeria are still unmetered. The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), in its quarterly report for the first quarter of 2023, revealed that over 7 million Nigerians out of approximately 12 million are on estimated billing, implying that they are unmetered. Despite government and private sector interventions, the report stated several reasons for the data. This includes the Federal Government’s intervention through the Central Bank of Nigeria — the National Mass Metering Programme (NMMP). The NMMP was designed to provide DisCos access to loans to purchase meters for their customers; however, the programme has failed to achieve its intended purpose.
Metering undertakes and covers certain losses experienced in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI). Therefore, paramount attention must be paid to metering to close the gap in collection, especially addressing the bottlenecks in the sector. Experts opined that political bottlenecks, poor regulation, haphazard billing of consumers and corruption contribute to the slow pace of metering in the country. Also, the monopoly of DisCos acquiring and distributing meters contributes to the issue.
NERC recently increased the price of prepaid meters, and experts projected that this may increase the metering gap already experienced in the country. The deployment of smart metering, which can transform energy monitoring, consumption, and management, has become crucial in pursuing a robust energy infrastructure. Enhancing prepaid meter availability and use must be critically worked on to establish a more sustainable and adaptable energy ecosystem. This is because prepaid meters can improve the efficiency of the grid by offering instantaneous data and giving consumers greater control.
Research has shown that the solution to advancing metering technologies and usage lies in enabling the manufacturing and installation of meters in Nigeria to be handled strictly by meter manufacturers so that consumers can directly access the intervention funds for acquiring meters. The government should develop regulations to address the liquidity in mass metering.