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How NCC is frustrating massive deployment of prepaid electricity meters
BY KAZIE UKO
Electricity distribution companies (Discos) have recounted how the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) is sabotaging President Muhammadu Buhari’s order for massive roll out of electricity prepaid meters to Nigerians.
Findings by RELIABLESOURCENG.COM in the Lagos area revealed that both the Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC) and the Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company (IKEDC) are hamstrung in carrying out the presidential order due to no fault of theirs.
We gathered that whereas thousands of electricity meters are lying about in the warehouses of the two distribution companies, the meters cannot be deployed for installation to electricity consumers because, according to sources, the NCC has refused to release the SIM cards that will enable their activation when installed.
“We have thousands of meters in our stores. You can even see some of them here. But there is nothing we can do about installing them without the SIM cards. It is the SIM cards, yes, the same SIM cards used by the mobile phones, that you will use to recharge the meter. Without the SIM card, the meter is useless,” a source who refused to be named told us in one of the stations.
The story is the same in all the Disco offices visited by RELIABLESOURCENG.COM and also some of the meter companies we visited.
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But while the NCC and the Discos dither with the SIM card issue, frustrated and angry electricity consumers continue to languish under the heavy yoke of ‘crazy’ estimated billings.
A consumer who said he paid for a three-phase meter for his residence for the past three months could not hide his frustration as he complained bitterly to our reporter.
“I paid almost N90,000 in December of last year for a three-phase meter and each time I come here or call them it’s one story or another,” the customer who lives on the Lagos Island area travailed. “To make matters worse, they have continued to send me some ridiculous estimated bills, sometimes almost N200,000 in a month. This is really, really frustrating,” he lamented.
“I live with my wife and both of us work, so, we are hardly ever at home during the day, all week. Even when one is at home, the light is on and off. So, I don’t know the justification behind billing us so much for power we hardly enjoy. That’s why I’m desperate to have my prepaid meter so I can know exactly what I’m paying for,” he narrated to us.
President Buhari had in December 2020 said he would enforce tough measures against any electricity distribution company or agents selling prepaid meters to their consumers, against his earlier directive that the meters should be distributed free.
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The Special Adviser to the President on Infrastructure, Ahmed Rufai Zakar, who represented Buhari at the FGN/NLC-TUC ad-hoc committee on electricity tariff stakeholders’ engagement in Ibadan, Oyo State on Wednesday, December 2, 2020 said the president understood the citizens’ plights on issues surrounding electricity and was determined to deal with bad elements.
“We have made it very clear through the regulators direct order as well as intervention from the Ministry of Power that the meters are to be provided to Nigerians at no cost.
“Even for meters that were paid for, there is the directive from the regulator to the discos that they would need to find a way to reimburse those citizens over time.
“In cases where we find any disco or disco representative selling the meters or exploiting Nigerians to be able to get meters by paying, we would take the full measures of the law.
“The President has mandated that these meters must be free. We have also said that they must come from local manufacturers.
“This would create jobs and revive our industry,” Zakar said.
The President had earlier directed that a total of six million meters, manufactured or assembled locally, should be rolled out to electricity consumers to end the agitation against estimated billing.