CBN, FG set to fund the production of locally made prepaid meters

The Federal Government in collaboration with the Central Bank of Nigeria, has promised to finance the production of four million prepaid meters locally, a power sector document has shown.

The document show that the ‘2022 Market Competition Report’ by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, FG and CBN would fund the project following the completion of the Phase 0 of the National Mass Metering Programme.

However, the document didn’t reveal how much would be spent on the project.

“Following the completion of Phase 0 of the NMMP (scope is the rollout of about one million meters), the Commission has commenced engagement with relevant stakeholders to kick off Phase 1 of the NMMP. Phase 1 is designed to provide FGN-CBN financing to DisCos to procure 4 million meters from Local Meter Manufacturers and Assemblers,” the report said.

The NMMP is part of the Federal Government’s effort to further bridge the country’s metering gap and also cushion the effect of the service reflective tariff on electricity consumers in Nigeria.

The power sector regulator explained further that the meter acquisition fund which was in pursuit of the December 2022 Tariff Order was to mitigate the risk of financing outside the electricity market.

“The fund will be administered centrally by a Fund Manager approved by the Commission, and would be used as securitisation for long-term financing for meter deployments to fast-track the closure of the end-users metering gap in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry

“Metering of customers remains a priority for NESI especially given its impacts on improving customers’ satisfaction, energy accounting, revenue assurance and overall improvement in the financial viability of NESI,” the report said.

Under the Phase 0 of the metering programme, which was flagged off in October 2020, the federal government installed about 900,000 free prepaid meters to electricity customers as against a target of 1 million.