Over 36 million electricity meters will be deployed and installed throughout the country by the end of the second quarter of 2021.
The Federal Government made the disclosure, saying it will restore faith and trust in the power sector because customers will no longer be extorted by an estimated billing scheme that does not match consumption.
The Minister of State Power, Gody Jeddy Agba, said during an inspection of the Nigerian Electricity Management Services Agency (NEMSA) meter testing facility in Enugu, he was satisfied with the level of work and installation of state-of-the-art equipment that will process reliability and certified electricity meters imported into the country.
Agba said the current administration’s power sector reforms would deal with new methods of improving generation, transmission, and distribution.
He added that adequate power supply in the country will translate to statistical economic growth and development of the gross domestic product (GDP), which is all-time high within the last one month.
“The benefits that accrue from the planned inauguration of the meter testing plant and facility stem from the fact that substandard meters that are inflammable will be eliminated from circulation, economic dumping of inferior goods by other countries as practiced in the past will no longer be tolerated by the authorities concerned, and above all, the estimated billing system will come with a penalty to whoever served the bill to consumers,” he said.
The minister noted that he was in Enugu to see the level of preparedness of NEMSA to commence operations urgently, in compliance with the federal government directives that 36 million electricity consumers in Nigeria must be metered before the end of quarter two in 2021, being the strategic plan for the sector.
However, the chief electrical officer of the federation and managing director, NEMSA, Peter Ewosa, declared that all electricity meters imported into the country must be tested at the point of entry to certify their technical fitness before installation.
“Every country has its technical requirements and standard specifications for any equipment that is publicly or privately put into use, therefore, any meter that does not pass through the agency cannot be installed either at homes, offices and factories.”
