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Metering Gap Will Be Closed In Three Years, Says NERC

Data available to the commission indicates that the present metering gap in Nigeria as of April 2019 is about 5,046,906 when compared to total consumers of 8,840,801, representing a 57 percent deficit in metering.

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James Momoh, Chairman of the Nigeria Electricity Regulation Commission (NERC)has said the metering gap in Nigeria’s electricity supply industry will be closed in three years.

The NERC boss stated this at the graduation of 38-meter installers from the MOMAS Electricity Meters Manufacturing Company LTD (MEMMCOL) metering school.

Momoh, who was represented by Shittu Shuaib, General Manager Consumer Affairs, said during the graduation ceremony at the MEMMCOL factory in Orimerunmu, Ogun State that the deficit of 5.04 million will be cleared by 2022 as a result of the Meter Asset Provider (MAP) scheme which was operationally launched in May.

“Metering is of great concern to the commission and the Federal Government. In light of this, the commission has instituted measures to accelerate metering through regulatory measures such as the MAP regulation of 2018. Data available to the commission indicates that the present metering gap in Nigeria as of April 2019 is about 5,046,906 when compared to total consumers of 8,840,801, representing a 57 percent deficit in metering.

This is a challenge and a marvellous opportunity. It is expected that the present metering gap would be closed within the next three years with the effective implementation of the distribution companies (Discos) meter rollout plan under the MAP scheme,” Momoh said. 

Speaking on the need for the metering school, Kola Balogun, Chairman of MEMMCOL, said there was a need to plug the manpower deficiency in the distribution subsector of NESI.

“Since inception, MOMAS as a group has been a major participator in the power industry, not for a quest to acquire wealth but to address some of the major obstacles hindering the delivery of quality electricity to Nigerians,” Balogun stated. 

He said the school was set-up to meet the global standard of metering schools across the globe.

“We make bold to say that we are the only indigenous meter manufacturing company that can boast of 100 percent local content in the design and manufacturing of our world-class standard electricity meters of various types for the Nigerian market”, he noted.

Balogun urged the distribution companies and the government to work with meter manufacturers to carry out research that would help the industry to grow.

Under the MAP scheme, consumers are to be metered in 10 days after they have made payments to a meter asset provider endorsed bythe distribution company.

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