The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) is investigating the allegation of exploitative metering by distribution companies.
This is part of the terms of reference for the committee inaugurated yesterday in Abuja to look into the matter.
NERC Chairman, Dr. Sam Amadi, said: “The corruption of staff of utilities who exploit customers in many ways is the major challenge in the sector. This assertion needs to be verified and stopped,” adding, “in order to ensure transparency and openness in the process of addressing the root cause of this debilitating malaise, the Commission is initiating this fact finding mission with the active participation of some distinguished members of the population selected from all parts of the country.”
He said the metering system has been described as faulty, complicated by the dishonesty of those who manage the process, acknowledging that customers have reported cases of being charged up to N100,000 for pre-paid electricity meters, which he said, “should not be.”
He stressed that other reported complaints include estimated billing charges where arbitrary bills are given by utility staff without reading meters and poor unfriendly customer care service, among others.
Amadi, who spoke at the inaugural ceremony, however added that this project would be solely “fact-finding and an exploratory mission and not a witch-hunting process.”
He said: “It is envisaged that at the end of the three months allocated for this assignment, the committee would have gathered adequate data and information from memoranda and oral evidence to be received from the public, academia, operators and ordinary electricity customers on the issues affecting metering in the electricity supply industry.”
He said the 14-man committee is expected to determine the extent of metering of customers in the industry, the factors which delay the procurement and installation of meters in accordance with rules and regulations in the industry and the deployment plans.
Amadi also urged the panel to determine the practices of metering, suggest how NERC can ensure effective and quick metering, and correct the lapses and corrupt practices and customer care in the industry.
Meanwhile, the Federal Government has vowed to bye-pass any community which disturbs the pace of work in its electrification programme.
In a statement by the Head, Media and Public Relations, Greyne Anosike, the Minister of Power, Prof Barth Nnaji, warned that the realisation of the electric power mandate of the administration has a timeline and that the sacking of the sector’s contractors from sites by some communities is unacceptable to the government.
Responding to the Minister’s quest for station-by-station situation reports, the chief executives of the power generating stations, observed that one of their pressing challenges is community interference on site, with some of them sacking contracting firms and their workers thereby slowing down the pace of work.
Nnaji, said it was in order to meet the timeline set for the conclusion of the Sector’s Reform that Government adequately compensated communities whose land would be affected by the project, but regretted that even after compensations had been made, some dissident groups turn back to ask for more and obstruct progress of work.
“Government does not work that way,” he said, adding that such communities should henceforth be bye-passed in the electrification programme if they did not put a stop to their intransigence.
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NERC probes ‘exploitative’ metering