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Power firms get two-week ultimatum to meter customers

By BusinessNews Staff on October 23, 2014

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission on Tuesday said power distribution companies had been given a two-week ultimatum to provide meters for customers who had paid for them under the Credited Advance Payment for Metering Implementation scheme.

According to NERC, the distribution companies that fail to meter the eligible consumers within the timeframe will face severe sanctions.

The Chairman, NERC, Dr. Sam Amadi, said a lot of consumers had complained of not being metered by the respective Discos for more than four months even after paying for the meters.

He spoke during a meeting with the electricity distribution companies and stakeholders on the aggregate technical, commercial and collection loss studies at the NERC headquarters in Abuja.

Amadi said, “Let me assure consumers who have written to us to complain about meters under the CAPMI. Many people have written to us to say that they have paid for meters under the initiative of credited advance payment for meters and they have not received the meters for the past three, four months or more than that.

“By this week, we are sending letters to all the Discos. The commissioner for consumer affairs is already preparing the letters. We will give the Discos two weeks to make sure they fully meter all those who have paid because the order of the commission is for 45 days. And so, after the two weeks, we will be conducting public hearings to ascertain whether all those who have paid for CAPMI meters have been metered.

“And the commission will view very seriously failure to meter these consumers. So, I want to assure those of you writing to us with complaints that they have paid for CAPMI meters in the last three, four months that we will ensure in the coming weeks that those who have not been metered are properly metered. And Discos that have not metered their consumers who paid for those meters themselves will be sanctioned.”

The commission also said that it wanted Nigerian consumers to help clampdown on recalcitrant distribution companies in the electricity market.

Amadi said NERC would largely rely on electricity consumers to provide it with information and evidence of poor electricity services delivered by the distribution companies in order to bring the firms to book.

“Another thing I will like to say here is to always encourage consumers not just to pay their bills as at when due, but also to take interest in knowing more of the intricacies in the sector. So, I want to encourage consumers to continuously engage with us and with their service providers,” he added.

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