The federal government, through the Central Bank of Nigeria’s National Mass Metering Programme (NMMP), has given a credit facility of N53.3 billion to the 11 power distribution companies in the country.
The NNMP was initiated in 2020 with the aim to supply 962,832 electricity meters in the six geopolitical zones of the country.
Data from the CBN, however, shows that 883,511 meters had been installed as of September 2023.
DisCos monthly revenue collection was also said to have risen from N42 billion in 2020 to over N72 billion as at the end of 2022, as a result of the initiative.
The key stakeholders of the project are the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI), the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Discos, Meter Asset Providers (MAPs), the federal government under a private finance initiative (PFI) .
The programme was solely funded by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
While the status of the loans disbursed was labelled as performing, the report also noted that some of the major challenges of the programme included persistent commercial and collection losses as well as existing metering gap of over 7 million.
The report further recommended the need for support of local meter manufacturing companies with capacity for backward integration, and facilitating synergy across the power sector value chain players.
It indicated that there is a need for an intensified collaboration between NERC and the distribution companies.
