An electricity consumer in Kuje Area of Abuja told LEADERSHIP that after paying the official amount for eight meters, he was told the meters were not available. But after he offered a kickback to the official, the meters materialised.
Under the NMMP scheme, the federal government said it would roll out six million meters for all connection points on grid without meters over the next 18 to 24 months, and was estimated to impact 30 million consumers nationwide. Investigations revealed that most DisCos lack adequate capacity to meet up with the period scheduled within the first phase. Also, there is a dearth of trained meter installers across the country and that has limited the deployment process.
Olubiyo advised government to allow consumers to pay and procure meters as the present arrangements have shut out those who are in dire need of meters. Balogun, however, called for forex intervention to enable them procure raw materials as the government prepares to launch phase 1 of the scheme. On his part, Prof. Barth Nnaji, former minister of power, noted that one of the key successes of the NMMP initiative is how rapidly it has increased private sector interest in investing in the local meter assembly, manufacturing and installation space.
LEADERSHIP reports that the second phase of its National Mass Metering Programme is intended to get four million Nigerians connected to the grid and make electricity distribution more efficient. To worsen the scenario, the producers are considering exporting their gas rather than supplying at a loss to the power sector.
He said that the license to explore oil and gas is granted by government and there is a contractual agreement on the supply mechanism, and that the gas utilization and commercialization policy is to boost industrialization and generate jobs. However, he said that if pricing becomes a constraint then government and producers should find a solution.
During the second quarter of the year, minister of state for petroleum resources, Timipre Sylva announced a downward review of gas-to-power for domestic supply obligation by 32 cents to $2.18/MMBtu with immediate effect.According to Ayuba Wabba, NLC president, the $2.18 new gas price violates the agreement between the federal government and organised labour.
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