As First Phase Mass Deployment Winds Down, Nigeria’s Metering Rate Declines to 71% in Q4

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

The rate of deployment of electricity meters, which had picked up in the first half of 2021, declined by a whopping 71.6 per cent in the last quarter amid the winding down of the National Mass Metering Programme (NMMP) sponsored by the federal government.

Information released by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) in its latest quarterly report, also put the total number of registered customers as of 31 December 2021 at 10.514 million out of which only 4.773 million had been metered, representing a 45.40 per cent coverage.

The Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) has a huge metering gap despite the launch of several metering programmes of electricity consumers in the past.

A number of the initiatives had failed and have been replaced with new programmes, with estimated billing still remaining a major issue for customers without metering devices.

In September 2020, the federal government launched the National Mass Metering Programme (NMMP) with the backing of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), which although slow, initially aided the ramping up of the metering efforts.

But with the winding down of the phase zero of the programme, metering deployment which aims at eliminating arbitrary estimated billing and strengthening the local manufacturing value chain has been comatose. Phase one was supposed to have commenced in August this year, but had not kicked off at the time of this report.

In Q4 under review, NERC stated that a meagre additional 81,084 end-user customers were metered, showing a massive slowdown in the deployment of meters.

“This however represents a 71.86 per cent reduction when compared to the 288,154 meters installed in Q3. This major reduction was driven by the winding down of the NMMP which had been the key driver of the significant progress recorded in consumer metering all through 2021, ”the industry regulator stated.

Out of the 81,084 meters installed for end users during the period, NERC noted that 70,676 (87.16 per cent) were done under the NMMP scheme while only 10,408 (12.84 per cent) customers were metered under the Meter Asset Provider (MAP) intervention.

 On a Disco-by-Disco basis, Benin Disco metered 20,911 customers during the period, while Abuja, Enugu, Ikeja, Jos and Kano Distribution Companies (Discos) recorded declining changes of -95.49 per cent, -90.26 per cent, -99.63 per cent, -84.52 per cent and -84.55 per cent respectively in their metering efforts when compared with the previous quarter.

Yola Disco did not meter customers at all during the period while Ikeja Disco reported 71 installations compared to 19,365 meters installations in the previous quarter.

“The main reason Abuja, Ikeja, Kaduna, Eko and Ibadan had significant reductions in meter installations in Q4 compared to Q3 is due to their early utilisation of their meter allocation under the NMMP, ”the report added.

During the period, under the MAP intervention, a total of 10,408 meters were installed, with Port Harcourt Disco recording the highest number of installations (6,620) representing 63.61 per cent of the total number of customers metered under the scheme for the period.

The report further revealed that the Ibadan, Jos, Kano and Yola Discos as in the preceding two quarters, did not record any installation under the MAP scheme.

“During the same period, a total of 70,676 customers were metered under the NMMP representing a 74.86 per cent decline from the 281,128 customers metered under NMMP in Q3. With the exception of Benin Disco, all other Discos reported a decline in customer metering through NMMP in Q4 compared to Q3.

“The reason Benin Disco had an increase is because along with Yola, there were the Discos with the lowest uptake of NMMP meters coming into Q4. Yola Disco’s poor offtake of the NMMP was caused by the ownership transition taking place at the Discos,” it added.

NERC said that as part of its ongoing efforts to boost end-user customer metering in the NESI, it will continue to implement the provisions of the MAP and NMMP regulations.

The MAP framework was introduced in 2018 and aims to make a route for the provision and maintenance of end-user meters as a service by third-party investors on which customers benefitting from such meters pay metering service charges.

 The initiative has so far metered a total of 601,014 customers out of which just 10,408 customers were metered in Q4.

“Just as in other quarters, there was a slowdown in the offtake of meters under the MAP framework because of the introduction of the NMMP, ”NERC stated.

On the other hand, NMMP is an initiative of the federal government of Nigeria to rapidly bridge the metering gap in the NESI.

It is a policy intervention with support from the CBN for the provision of long-term (10-year tenure) single digit interest loans to distribution licensees (Discos) strictly for the provision of meters to customers.

The NMMP has metered a total number of 872,093 customers since inception at the time the NERC report was prepared.

“The funding for the first phase of the NMMP only covered 1 million meters, so the decline in NMMP meter rollout recorded over the last quarter is to be expected as the entire quota for the first phase is nearly exhausted,” NERC added.

Many Nigerians are still under the estimated billing regime, with Discos usually deciding what customers should pay monthly based on their own evaluation and not on the basis of a an accurate electricity measuring device.