The Senate on Tuesday, expressed dissatisfaction at the poor rate of deployment of meters despite the fact that the apex bank had released N33billion out of the N59billion earmarked for the project.
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Power, Senator Gabriel Suswan, expressed displeasure at the end of oversight functions of his panel at the Nigerian Electricity Management Services Agency (NEMSA).
NEMSA is a Federal Government agency saddled with the responsibility of enforcing technical standards and regulations in the power sector through inspection, testing and certification of electrical equipment and products.
The Federal Government had in October 2020, launched the National Mass Metering Programme to upscale the nation’s metering capacity as well as eliminate the controversial estimated billing system.
The CBN is expected to provide funds to support DisCos and local manufacturers to produce meters for customers.
The Benue North-East lawmaker noted that the country could not wait for all the certified local manufacturers to start production, therefore, the DisCos were permitted to import the products now for the purpose of mass metering, and to achieve the threshold.
The Senator said, “There is a presidential initiative that saddled the Central Bank of Nigeria with the responsibilities of providing money to those who are ready to start meter manufacturing in the country.
“There is a seed money at the CBN which they can take at single digit for them to be able to start manufacturing meters, so that the issue of complaining of lack of meters and the issue of estimated billings will be a thing of the past.
“Many potential manufacturers of meters are already taking advantage of the initiative. There will be a lot of meter manufacturers in Nigeria within the next two years in Nigeria.
“The mass metering that has been initiated by the Federal Government has three stages.
“They are zero stage, phase one and Phase two. In the phase one, the Meter Assets Provider that were contracted by the DISCOs are supposed to supply meters. They will import meters and keep so that we can achieve certain threshold.
” In the phase one, the Central Bank of Nigeria is giving money only to those who are producing meters in Nigeria, that will come in towards the last quarter of this year.
“Those who want to produce meter have money sitting at the CBN which they will take at single digit interest date percentage. Quite a number of them had been identified and they have started producing meters even in Abuja here.”
He noted that the country could not wait for all the certified local manufacturers to start producing, hence the DISCOs were permitted to import the products now for the purpose of mass metering , and to achieve the threshold.
He said, “There is no way we could wait till those people set up factories before we start deploying meters. So, we are importing meters now.
“About N59bn was set aside by the CBN but the sum of N33bn has been disbursed already and some meters have been produced even though the deployment has been very poor but that is ongoing. “
Suswam said NEMSA had a lot of responsibilities to carry out in the power sector but that it was unfortunately, not being properly funded.
He said, “They have the technical knowhow to test all the electricity equipment coming in to the country.
“The Act that sets up NEMSA empowers it to apply sanctions but it is not adequate.
“What we are doing as a parliament is that we have initiated an Electricity Act for the country to take care of most of the infractions that go unpunished most of the time.”
The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of NEMSA, Peter Ewesor, commended the Federal Government policy, which is aimed at producing about six million meters by 2022.
He said, “All those who have been bringing in meters from outside the country now have to establish factories in Nigeria now.
“We have actually certified well over 15 companies in the last nine months because they know that if they are not producing meters in Nigeria, they will not have access to the facilities that the government is providing through the CBN.
“NEMSA already has various meter testing centres across the geopolitical zones in the country and we have been effective in discharging our responsibilities despite paucity of funds and inadequate personnel.”
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