The Senate, on Thurday, expressed dissatisfaction with the spate of metering under the National Mass Metering programme.
These views were expressed when the senate had an oversight meeting with the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC). Despite the release of about ₦33.4 billion by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for the programme.
NERC Chairman, Engineer Sanusi Garba, however, noted that the meter installation remained at 13 per cent as of 19th March. The Chairman noted that while ₦403, 000 out of the one million meters, have been delivered to the DisCos, only 127 000 have been installed. Garba stated that the poor performance has been due to a delay in disbursement of the fund, with a large part of the money not getting to the DisCos until February.
In its first phase, the programme intends to distribute one million meters to households by April 2021. About ₦59.2 billion has been budgeted for the project. However, only ₦33.4 billion has been released to the DisCos by the CBN.
The Senate Committee on Power Chairman, Gabriel Suswam, noted in the meeting that Nigerians are not happy that despite all efforts being made by the federal government, the spate of metering is still being done at a slow spate. The senator noted that e the current estimated billing being model is not acceptable, and that is the reason why the federal government made the intervention.
(Electricity Hub)
