Stakeholders in the power sector have raised dust over Federal Government’s recent disbursement of another N18.5 billion intervention fund to power distribution companies in the country to procure meters for their customers.
They told Daily Independent that the development was misplaced and showed that the government was unnecessarily spoon-feeding power investors who ought to muster enough financial chest to meter their customers in line with the agreement they signed when they took over some of the assets of the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN).
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), last week, announced that it had provided N18.58 billion worth of credit to Electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos) to procure 347,853 electricity reading meters and enhance regular power supply in the country.
The apex bank, in its communiqué of the Monetary Policy Committee and signed by the governor, Godwin Emefiele, explained that the facility was given in support of the Federal Government’s National Mass Metering Programme (NMMP).
It stated: “The bank has so far provided N18.58 billion for the procurement of 347,853 electricity reading meters to DisCos in support of the National Mass Metering Programme.”
Under the new arrangement, distribution companies are expected to go from location to location with their respective Meter Asset Providers (MAP) to provide and install meters for their customers.
A senior official of the Coalition for Affordable and Regular Electricity (CARE) said his group recognised the need to provide meters free of charge to all Nigerians but saw this intervention as a needless misappropriation of public funds and the sustenance of a bailout programme aimed at propping up privileged private companies, including the Distribution Companies (DisCos) and Generating Companies (GenCos), at the expense of the general public and consumers.
Condemning the intervention, the group’s coordinator, Chinedu Bosah, told Daily Independent that it was aimed at protecting the profit of these power companies.
Provision of meters to all consumers, he said, were the exclusive and primary duty of the distribution companies, adding that all the while Nigerians had been made to buy meters for themselves at an exorbitant cost between the range of N40,000 and N90,000.
According to him, distribution companies do not want to invest in prepaid meters due to profit consideration that is linked to the sustenance of the unjust estimated billing method.
He said the last metering drive was funded by the government through the N27 billion interventions funds of the Meter Acquisition Providers Scheme that created another set of exploitative outfit called Meter Providers, and that this policy failed because most Nigerians could not procure meters.
He also said the power companies had now agreed to metering because the government was bankrolling it and juicy, unfair, and exploitative tariff was being implemented and consolidated such that at the present tariff and further hikes, consumers would be forced to pay so much for very little electricity supply.
He added: “We should not forget that similar bailouts in the past had not been fully paid back by the DisCos.
“In 2015, N203 billion was given to the DisCos as intervention funds and a large chunk of the bailout has not been paid back and a similar fate awaits this new initiative.
“Government has wasted about N2 trillion public funds bailing out power companies since 2013 the power sector was privatised and we are still in darkness.
“Hence, the privatisation of the power sector has only made a bad situation worse and it is high time we ended this IMF and World Bank inspired neo-liberal policies that are making a privileged few capitalists so rich while the vast majority remain increasingly in poverty.
“It is not only in the area of metering has the DisCos and GenCos failed, but they also failed to improve on their services, many of their infrastructure and facilities are in a terrible state.
“As a matter of fact, the communities are the ones providing and paying for the fixing of these facilities (transformers, poles, etc).
“Is it not a shame that after 60 years of Independence, Nigeria is still battling with 3,000 to 4000MW of electricity for a population of 200 million people; about 46% of Nigerians are not connected to the national electricity grid, and Nigerians in different communities are plunged into avoidable darkness for most of the time.”
He maintained that the crisis in the power sector could not be resolved by bailing out power companies or sustaining the privatisation policies.
He stressed that it could only be resolved by reversing the privatisation policies, placing the power sector under public and collective ownership.
He added: “We recognise that public ownership of the power sector just like the entire commanding height of the economy under this self-serving capitalist ruling elite and government will not solve the myriad of problems, given the experience of NEPA/PHCN.
“And this was so because it was run undemocratically and bureaucratically by a powerful small band of privileged persons that gave room for ineptitude, corruption, nepotism, inefficiency, and cronyism.
“It is only public ownership under workers and consumers transparent and democratic control and management that can usher in massive investment, efficiency, affordable, and regular electricity.”
Kunle Kola Olubiyo, President, Nigeria Consumers Protection Network, also picked holes in the disbursement of the intervention fund to the power distribution companies in the country.
He told Daily Independent that the money meant for the National Mass Metering Programme should not be given to the DisCos.
He added: “All disbursement by Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for the funding of the National Mass Metering Programme in its entirety should be given to Meter Service Providers (MSP) and 70% of the funding should be paid at first line charges to indigenous manufacturers to promote backward integration via patronage of meters made in Nigeria and meters assembled in Nigeria, as the case may be, to create jobs and not export jobs for able bodied youths to other already developed climes.
“The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) should step up its statutory oversights in monitoring, evaluation and regulation enforcement of the well-intended National Mass Metering Programme.
“This aspect has been the missing link over time. Money for every payment under the National Mass Metering Programme should be at first line charges directly from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
“This advice should be given periodically in good faith, without prejudices and in the overall public interest.’
Faulting the latest intervention fund, another stakeholder in the sector, Teni Adebayo, said it was a misplaced priority which would not translate to improved metering of customers in the country.
He added: “DisCos don’t produce meters; they also buy them and there are companies licensed to produce meters in Nigeria, they are the ones to get N18.5 billion not DisCos.
“They’re confused. The best and simple thing they should have done is to call the licensed manufacturers of meters, give them this money to produce as many meters that are needed and allow major distributors to get it from them.
“Even individuals too should access it from them easily over the counter and call the DisCos to come and install it.
“But this won’t work in this country because there are so many people that are interested in that money.”
“The CBN recently granted loan to DisCos to bridge meter shortfalls under the National Mass Metering Programme.
“How would you rationalise this development, given the fact that the DisCos are business entities which should be able to fix the meter challenges by now?”
But Adetunji Iromini, Chief Executive Officer of Solar Centric Tech, told Daily Independent that the current intervention fund advanced to the power distribution companies was in order and would add requisite value to the sector in terms of narrowing metering gaps in Nigeria.
He added: “This intervention buttresses my earlier point on Nigeria taking full ownership of the power sector.
“The auto industry was bailed out by President Obama’s administration in 2018 otherwise the entire sector would have collapsed.
“Sectors that provide essential services can’t be allowed to go burst. I am indeed excited about the step taken by the Central Bank of Nigeria/Federal Government.”
