The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, (NERC) has said it was set to begin investigations into the nation’s poor metering system.
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Disclosing this in Abuja yesterday, Chairman of the Commission, Dr Sam Amadi, said a high powered committee, headed by human rights lawyer, Bamidele Aturu, has been set up to investigate the cause for poor electricity meters nationwide.
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Amadi who was speaking on the sidelines of the US-Nigeria partnership on Regulatory Capacity Assessment between the Commission and the Michigan Public Service Commission, explained that the investigation would cover the 90’s to date.
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“After decades of intervention by the federal government to have a reliable metering system for electricity in the country, only about 40 per cent coverage has been achieved.
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We expected that by now, we should have achieved 90 per cent metering,” he stated.
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He however, noted that some utilities like Eko and Ikeja Distribution companies? were already doing better in metering. He also explained that a recent World Bank support in metering has helped the country? boost its metering efficiency to about 40 per cent.
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The NERC boss who expressed worry that the lack of proper metering was a major challenge to the realisation of a cost reflective tariff said: “If you have no proper metering, you cannot manage the industry, this is why we are setting up a credible committee to ask questions and report back to us so that we will control both the corruption in the metering process and inefficiency.”
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While fielding questions from journalists, the director economic growth and environment, Sharon Pauling, said the agency was committed to support NERC to develop an alternative and clean energy in Nigeria.