Of the 5,172,979 customers captured in the records of the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI), only 2,893,701 or 55.94 per cent are metered. Out of the number only 2,434,541 or 8.42 per cent of the total households in Nigeria are currently being billed correctly for electricity consumption, the committee on public inquiry on metering said yesterday.
The metering probe committee, which was instituted by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), while presenting its final report to the chairman of the commission in Abuja yesterday, said that there had been a prevalent practice of arbitrary charges based on unscientific estimation of electricity tariff by distribution companies (Discos) amid gross inefficiency.
Using the number of households in the country, put at 28,900,492, as an index, the committee said only 8.42 per cent of the total households in the country are currently being billed correctly by all Discos, with the remaining at the mercy of estimated billing.
The committee, which was headed by human rights lawyer Bamidele Aturu, also observed that the sum of N2.9 billion provided for the Discos to meter consumers in the Multi-Year Tariff Order 1(MYTO1) was yet to be fully accounted for by the chief executive officers (CEOs) of the Discos despite the fact that their customers have remained largely unmetered.
The committee, which conducted its enquiry in the six geopolitical zones of the federation, said it observed that the Discos had meters in stock but failed to supply and install same for consumers, thereby suggesting that the CEOs were responsible for the inefficiency and unaccountability that permeate the system.
“It was discovered that in most of the Discos, even though meters were in stock, customers existed who had paid for years and yet were not supplied any. This was confirmed when some customers, upon the declaration of some CEOs of their readiness to meter within a week, got their meters. It shows that meters are not as scarce as the CEOs widely alleged.
“Sharp practices and inefficiencies are the hallmarks of the metering system, from aging power plants and terrible transmission lines to, more importantly, rampant corruption and poor collection rates. In virtually all the six zones visited, we received complaints ranging from outright refusal to read installed non-prepaid meters, culture of impunity of PHCN staff, connivance of some unscrupulous PHCN staff with private individuals to defraud the general public,” Aturu said.
The report further recommended that cases of criminality be properly investigated and those found guilty, sanctioned according to law, even as it called on NERC to intensify its monitoring apparatus to ensure proper implementation of existing regulations on metering, stressing that “the era of arbitrariness should as a matter of urgency, be replaced with that of objectivity and decorum.”
Responding to the committee’s findings, Amadi said it was critical to bridge the metering gap which is why NERC has set an 18 months time frame to achieve this, adding that the huge metering gap will expose customers to paying for what they did not consume.