The Minister of Power, Abubakar Aliyu has described those who are still selling metres to electric consumers in Nigeria as “agbero” and touts.
The Minister, who gave details of his ministry’s achievements and challenges at a weekly media briefing at the Presidential villa, Abuja today, March 3, said that such people are being monitored for action.
He made it clear that the metres are meant to be given to the consumers free in the government’s determination to place all consumers on metre.
The Minister said that serious punitive measures have been identified to be meted out to the culprits who he insisted are saboteurs.
Abubakar Aliyu stressed that President Muhammadu Buhari is firm on his stance that all Nigerian’s must be metered to improve fairness and transparency in the NESI. “To that effect, the National Mass Metering Program was launched through a partnership between the Central Bank of Nigeria and the NERC. “This led to commitments to finance over N200 billion for DISCOs to meter all Nigerians in an accelerated fashion (through concessionary lending). Currently 1 million meters have been rolled out under the first phase. Accelerated procurement is ongoing for the second phase of 4 million meters with critical focus on local manufacturers to provide jobs through the program.
“The first phase generated 10,000 jobs in installation and assembly. We anticipate that the second phase contracts will be awarded by the end of the 1st Quarter. There will be a third phase that will provide an additional 2 million meters funded through the World Bank.
“It should noted that each meter for a household covers up to 5 citizens. We aim to provide meters for all households and eliminate the metering gap. In the interim, the Capping Regulation is being enforced by NERC to ensure that arbitrary estimated billing is curtailed. NERC is finalizing the launch of a large customer complain center to ensure that instances of abuse by market players are reported and addressed expeditiously.
“To ensure adequate training for meter installers, the National Power Training Institute (NAPTIN) is looking to partner with N-Power to train 5,000 meter installers as we kick off the 2nd phase.”
