NERC increases cost of meter, blames exchange rate

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), has now increased the price of the asset to N82,855.19 for three phase and N44.896.16 for single phase meters.

This is despite that stakeholders have decried the poor implementation of the Meter Asset Providers (MAPs) policy.

While the prices were N36,991 for single phase and N67,055 a memo obtained by news sources and signed by the Chairman of NERC, James Momoh, pegged the new price pursuant to section 19 (d) of the MAPs regulation.

“In arriving at the approved unit costs, the commission has considered the recent changes in foreign exchange approved by the Central Bank of Nigeria and the applicable rate available to importers of meter component or fully assembled meters through investors and exporters’ forex window,” Momoh said in the memo.

This is in-spite several public outcry over the inability of NERC and the nation’s power distribution companies to provide basic infrastructure, including prepaid meters to customers, years after the power sector privatisation.

In the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) rooted in the Performance Agreement (PA) for the DisCos, the NERC, through the EPSRA Act of 2005 states that power utility companies are charged with the responsibility of metering consumers.

This is the basis for Sections 32 sub-section D, and Section 76 sub-section 2 of the Act, which aims to calculate tariffs to achieve the legislation on liberalisation.

To address the deficit, NERC transferred the responsibility of meter acquisition to end users with the introduction of MAPs policy, which third part investors into distribution subsector.

According to NERC, out of a total of 8, 310, 408 registered active electricity customers, only 3, 704, 302 (44.6 per cent) have been metered, which means that 55.4 per cent of end-use customers are still on estimated billing.