The 11 electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos) have installed only 525,120 meters in the last two years, just as about six million power consumers languish under estimated billing as of 2020.
The low installation figure is 7.5 per cent of the DisCos’ contracted supply of 7.6m meters between 2019 and November 2020.
According to a statistics report on the metering status from the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), the meters were installed under the Meter Asset Providers (MAP) regulation which began in 2019, and the National Mass Metering Programme (NMMP) initiated in October 2020.
The breakdown of the statistics shows that under MAP, the 10 DisCos (without Yola) targeted installing 6,588,971 meters but just 508,812 units were installed from 2019 to November 2020.
The DisCos also failed the 1 million metering target they had set for December 2020 under the NMMP which started in October 2020. Just 16,308 meters were installed by only seven DisCos as five others did not deploy meters as of November.
Of this figure, 1,958 meters were installed in October 2020, while the other 14,350 meters were installed in November.
Among the seven DisCos that deployed, Abuja installed 8,941 meters from 101,186 targets while P/H installed 6,818 from 77,070 meters; Jos installed 345 from 88,538; the other DisCos installed less than 100 meters out of over 100,000 targets.
Analysis also revealed how the DisCos installed 525,120 meters (7.5%) from a planned 7.6m target from 2019. Ikeja DisCo has the most ambitious metering target as it contracted 1.181m meters but only installed 165,015 units.
Abuja DisCo is the next with a 1.002m meter target and 158,894 units installed. Enugu DisCo contracted to procure 713,926 meters but has installed just 67,920 of them.
Yola DisCo operated by the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) contracted 749,376 meters but there was no record from NERC on what it has installed so far.
In descending range of installed meters, Ibadan DisCo targeted 1.093m meters but only installed 37,714 units; Eko DisCo targeted 283,178 units but has installed 35,427 meters.
Port Harcourt DisCo relatively performed well compared to its target; it promised 214,394 meters and has deployed 34,928 of them; Benin DisCo was to procure 664,646 meters but just 10,148 meters have been installed.
The least performing DisCos are Kano, Jos, and Kaduna. Kano targeted 562,747 meters but installed only 3,165 meters as of November 2020; Jos promised 588,538 meters but only 4,284 of them were installed; Kaduna Electric has an ambitious 536,957-meter target but just 7,535 units have been installed.
Further analysis shows that 10 of the DisCos installed in 2019, as Yola was left out, installed 122,737 meters. Abuja DisCo led after installing 63,002 units; Ikeja installed 22,818; Enugu did 17,372 meters and P/H DisCo installed 7,699 meters.
Others in the mid-range were Eko (5,386), Ibadan (4,376), Benin (1,169), and Kaduna (878). The least installation figures in 2019 were from Jos DisCo (15 meters) and Kano DisCo (22).
In 2020, the NERC statistics showed that the 10 DisCos installed 336,812 within 10 months. 103,780 meters were installed in the first quarter; the figure dropped to 67,746 meters in Q2, it rose to 125,311 meters in Q3, while 39,975 meters were deployed in October 2020.
Ikeja DisCo led during the 10-month period with 112,262-meter installations, followed by Abuja DisCo (84,262 units), and Enugu (44,595). The lowest installation was at Kano DisCo (2,821 meters), Jos (3,554), Kaduna (5,829), and Benin (7,777).
In November 2020, the DisCos failed to meet their monthly deployment target in spite of their renewed efforts on the mass metering programme with a target of one million meter installation by December 2020. Yola DisCo, which had not deployed any meter before but targeted 11,111 meters in November, failed the target. (Daily Trust)
