‘600,000 meters available’ — NERC asks DisCos to speed up rollout

Musiliu Oseni, the vice-chairman of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), says about 600,000 prepaid meters are currently available in the country, urging electricity distribution companies (DisCos) to improve publicity and rollout speed.

Oseni spoke during his opening address at the 4th Nigerian electricity supply industry (NESI) stakeholders meeting in Abuja on Saturday, according to a statement posted on the commission’s X account.

Oseni said there are “currently 600,000 to 700,000 meters available in the country”.

He challenged “utilities to improve publicity and rollout speed”, noting that the government has made the investment, so the DisCos need to step up.

With the transition to state electricity regulatory commissions, Oseni advised DisCos to cooperate with new state regulators.

“No licensee is bigger than their regulator,” he said.

Also speaking, Dafe Akpeneye, the NERC commissioner of legal, licensing and compliance, dismissed DisCos’ claim that thousands of meters are missing because customers moved them without approval.

He said just as a “post no debit” order forces a bank customer to visit a branch, DisCos must use their vending platforms to enforce compliance.

“If you don’t know where the meter is, the customer shouldn’t be able to vend,” Akpeneye said.

“Issue a public notice that you cannot identify these meters. Block them from vending and take them off your system until the people concerned come forward.

“Stop behaving as if you are doing customers a favour.”

Nathan Shatti, the NERC commissioner for corporate services, speaking on meter asset provider (MAP) refunds and installations, highlighted the poor performance of specific utilities.

He said Abuja and Kano DisCos have achieved only 2 percent compliance on refunds.

The NERC official rejected technical excuses for the delay in installing paid-for meters.

“If your network is not ready for metering, do not collect people’s money,” Shatti said.

The commissioner added that uninstalled transformers or meters result in losses for DisCos, urging them to meter customers and address transformer issues.

Shatti said over 350,000 meters are yet to be migrated to the new standard transfer specification (STS), and demanded immediate cleanup of obsolete data.