Meter payments to be spread over 10 years, says minister

The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, has clarified that electricity consumers who get free prepaid meters will have up to 10 years to repay the cost.

Adelabu’s statement contradicts claims that customers who pay for meters would be refunded through energy credit.

Speaking recently in Ibadan, the minister, who acknowledged that the cost of meters had been on the increase, said funding was a major challenge.

According to Adelabu, the Federal Government would fund the meter procurement through different initiatives while the customers pay back over time.

“We can get funding for this meter and allow the customers to pay over time.

“When the government starts procuring meters, we’ll give it to the customers, and we’ll deduct the money over 10 years. In which case, you will not even feel it at all,” he stated.

He explained further that a customer who bought an energy credit of N5,000 might have N100 deducted for the ‘free’ meter he got from the government.

“Probably, if you buy a credit of N5,000, maybe N100 will go into the meter that we have given you. So, that’s what we are trying to do. We bring these meters in and reduce the gap that we have in the meters,” he posited.

Adelabu maintained that the Federal Government and the states had raised N100bn for the procurement of prepaid electricity meters.

He explained, “Mr President has set up what we call the Presidential Meter Initiative and set up a Presidential Meeting Council to address this issue. He made me the chairman of this council. The SA on Energy to Mr President is the secretary of the council. The mandate we have was to procure and install a minimum of 2 million meters on a yearly basis over the next five years.

“In the PMI, we have made good progress in sourcing the fund for this, and it is going to be by a combination of the federal and state governments. Today, we have received, and seen about N100bn fund that will go into the procurement of meters.”

He added that the World Bank decided to support Nigeria with the procurement of almost two million meters in the next two years through the distribution sector recovery programme.

He disclosed that $200m out of the $500m DISREP fund would be used for meter procurement, saying that had reached an advanced stage.