President Muhammadu Buhari moved to make funding available for DisCos immediately, in a bid to roll out 1,000,000 Meters in the first phase, at no cost to consumers.
President Buhari disclosed that his administration in a bid to end estimated billing in all forms in Nigeria has moved to make funding available for DisCos for the purpose.
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According to the President, his administration is making all efforts to ensure that it closes the metering gap.
He emphasized that subsequent phases, which are expected to add to the gains of previous mass meter distribution will help the government cover the 6.5 million deficits of meters nationwide.
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Under the first phase of the Presidential Mass Metering Initiative, we are making funding immediately available for DisCos to roll out 1,000,000 Meters in the first phase, at no cost to consumers. Deployment has already started in parts of Kano, Kaduna, Lagos and Abuja.
— Muhammadu Buhari (@MBuhari) November 4, 2020
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What they are saying
Speaking about this development, the President said:
“Under the first phase of the Presidential Mass Metering Initiative, we are making funding immediately available for DisCos to roll out 1,000,000 Meters in the first phase, at no cost to consumers. Deployment has already started in parts of Kano, Kaduna, Lagos, and Abuja…
Future phases of this Metering Initiative will help us fully meet the 6.5 million deficit of meters nationwide, and will impact an estimated 30 million consumers.
“All meters under this program will be sourced from local manufacturers and in-country stock, to create jobs…
We are committed to ending estimated billing in all forms in Nigeria, and ensuring that Nigerians pay only for the electricity they consume.”
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What you should know
CBN in October disclosed that the introduction of the service-based tariff (SBT) in the Nigeria Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) effective from 1st September 2020 has increased emphasis on the need to close the metering gap in the NESI.
As the current metering gap (which comprises unmetered customers as well as customers with obsolete meters) in the NESI is over 10 million, President Muhammadu Buhari approved the National Mass Metering Program (NMMP) implementation to deal with this.
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Why this matters
The decision of the President to provide mass meters to consumers at no cost is a laudable effort, as the closing of this gap will save consumers from exorbitant estimated billing, and this will enhance the efficiency of revenue collection by Distribution Companies (DisCos) and thereby facilitate meeting their obligations to other upstream market participants.
