The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission has said it should be the priority of power distribution companies to meter all customers on Band A feeders.
This came barely one week after the NERC approved over 200 per cent tariff hike for over 1.8million Band A customers
NERC Vice Chairman, Dr Musiliu Oseni, highlighted the commission’s metering plans at a meeting with Civil Society Organisations and Community-Based Organisations in Abuja Monday.
Band A customers are those who enjoy a minimum of 20 hours of electricity daily, according to the NERC.
NERC had on Wednesday announced the tariff increment for Band A power customers from N68 to N225 per kilowatt-hour.
With the new tariff, the regulator said the subsidy on electricity had been withdrawn completely from the Band A consumers, who the NERC said constitute about 15 per cent of the total number of power users across the country.
At the meeting on Monday, Oseni explained that about 15 to 20 per cent of the Band A customers were unmetered.
“On metering, we still have about 15 to 20 per cent of the Band A customers that are not metered and that has to be a priority of the DisCos,” he said.
According to Oseni, the Federal Government and the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry have various initiatives to ensure the metering of the Band A customers.
“There are various initiatives of the presidency and the NESI to ensure metering. The most important thing is that efforts are being made to meter customers starting from those that are being affected now on Band A,” he stated.
Our correspondent reports that some unmetered customers are already panicking over how they would be asked to pay for April through estimated billing.
Hitherto, there have been issues between power distribution companies and unmetered customers over estimated billing as customers complain of overbilling.
Many Nigerians opined that the over 8 million metering gap should have been closed before the government removed the electricity subsidy to save customers from extortion.
An X user, Twins, said, “This is the first thing that should have been done by the DisCos. Meter your customers; increase the tariff and let people pay according to their consumption”.
@Skarzdesigns said: “This is a huge mistake coming from you to approve an increase on the tariff. Metering customers is the first thing to do in order to get the true cost of what they consume. Musiliu Oseni looks young but it is disappointing this mistake is coming from him”
