The Federal Government says it will deploy seven million smart meters, through its Presidential Metering Initiative, to end estimated billing and revenue leakages.
Mrs Olu Verheijen, Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Energy, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Sunday.
Verheijen,who was speaking on the second year anniversary of the Tinubu’s administration, said the smart meters would end collection losses for most of the customers who are on-grid and unmetered.
She said the meter deployment is one of the initiatives of the administration to resolve and improve the commercial value chain of gas to power.
“There are a number of actions or interventions that we are taking to ensure that we improve the commercial viability of the gas-to-power value chain.
“We are developing the policy and the frameworks that enable us to transition to a system that allows us to charge the cost of delivering electricity, and more importantly, to drive efficiencies in arriving at that cost,” she said.
The special adviser said the government is also working to clear its legacy debt that accumulated as a result of inability to fund electricity subsidies.
She said the debt aldo accumulated due to Distribution Company (Discos)’ inability to collect and perform at the expected level.
“We plan to clear the legacy debt
with a mix of cash and promissory notes to ensure that the generation companies and the gas suppliers are also paid.
“In addition to this, we are making sure that we improve revenue assurance by ensuring that most customers on the grid are metered.
“With this, ,we can end estimated billing and ensure that we reduce collection losses so that customers who get electricity are paying customers,” she said
In exchange for the resolution of the legacy debts, Verheijen said the government would demand that all the actors and investors across the value chain improve their performance, deploy more capital to expand more on-grid access.
Verheijen said the administration is working to ensure improvement in the governance of the Disco’s, being the cash engine of the entire value chain.
She said, through the regulatory frameworks in place, government would ensure Discos’ financial and technical capacity to deliver more reliable power to Nigerian homes and businesses.
