3.2 million prepaid meters scheme suffers setback, Nigerians ‘hold night vigil’ to purchase product – Investigation

•Racketeering takes centre stage

•Shortfall rises 53% to 6.47 million

•200,000 meters already supplied – Minister’s aide

By Ediri Ejoh

AS Nigerians struggle with crippling power supply across the country, access to prepaid meter has taken the center stage as customers battle bottlenecks that force them to keep ‘night watch’ for portals to be opened and payment made to purchase the product.

This comes against the backdrop of the Federal Government’s pronouncement months ago, through the Minister of Power, Mr Adebayo Adelabu, that it was expecting the first batch of 3.2 million meters to be delivered from April 2025.

To fast-track deployment, Adelabu said government was relying on two major initiatives: The Distribution Sector Recovery Programme (DISREP) and the recently launched ¦ 700 billion Presidential Metering Initiative.

“Under the DISREP scheme, 3.2 million meters are to be delivered by 2026 through various procurement models—1,437,501 meters via ICB1, 217,600 via National Competitive Bidding and 1.55 million through a second international bid”, he had said.

“The Presidential Metering Initiative, on the other hand, is aimed at supplying two million meters annually for the next five years.

“Backed by ¦ 700bn from the Federation Account Allocation Committee, the programme will be managed by a Special Purpose Vehicle to ensure large-scale procurement and distribution.

“A tender for the first batch of two million meters under the PMI is expected to be issued in the third quarter of 2025”.

While the minister acknowledged that the metering gap remains a concern, he dismissed claims that it would take over a decade to close the deficit as misleading.

His words: “With structured financing and targeted implementation already in motion, the country’s metering landscape is poised for significant improvement before the end of the year.”

According to him, the first consignment of 75,000 meters under the International Competitive Bid 1 (ICB1) will arrive in April 2025, followed by an additional 200,000 meters in May.

Adelabu added that while challenges remain, significant progress had been made with over 5.5 million customers, about 55 percent of the 10.1 million active electricity users, already metered as of December 2024.

Industry watchers are aghast as the promise of the deployment of the 3.2 million meters from April 2025, made by the minister, appears to have suffered a setback as customers keep ‘vigil’ in the hope of the registration portal coming up for payment to be made.

To confirm customers’ complaints, Sunday Vanguard logged in and tried to initiate payment in the afternoon over a period of one week, but the portal froze and declined going further for payment for a meter purchase.

A customer, who preferred to be called Mrs. Joy, for her part, lamented that she had been configured to remain awake at night for the past two months and still counting, yet meter had not been paid for, let alone the product being delivered and installed.

She said, “I feel these DISCOs are fraudulent as well as the government because I don’t see why their pronouncement does not match reality.

“How can it be said that for two months I have been on this process most of the times at night because I learnt it does open only at night.

“If there is no intention for the government and the DISCOs to be mischievous, how is it that one can access it seldom in the midnight.”

 Racketeering

Sunday Vanguard investigation reveals that this development may have opened a window of racketeering for marketers of the DISCOs, who directly contacted ‘favourite’ customers whenever the portal is up for payment approval.

A beneficiary of the development, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said, “I got my meter when I promised a marketer of additional money if she helped in getting it.

“Fortunately, I got a call at about 1:00am to make payment as it was up and running, which I hurriedly did and got my meter.”

Another customer, who was simply identified as Adedeji, under one of the franchise unit, argued that he got a meter from a marketer but at a higher cost, saying, “For me, it wasn’t about the money because the estimated bill I got monthly was crazy, but all I did was to pay more and I got the meter in few weeks.

“I feel there is something wrong about the system because I was told that if I needed again, I know what to do and I will get a meter.”

This puts to question the integrity placed by the government in ensuring widespread distribution of prepaid meters to customers who are currently ripped-off by DISCOs on estimated billings despite epileptic power across the country.

Shortfall rises 53%

Recent data released by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, indicate that the DISCOs installed a total of 187,194 meters in the first quarter of 2025.

The Q1 2025 data show a marginal increase of 0.41 per cent from the 186,431 meters installed in the previous quarter (Q4 2024).

This incremental installation raised the net end-user metering rate marginally by 0.41 percentage points, from 46.57 per cent in Q4 2024 to 46.98 per cent in Q1 2025.

However, despite these efforts, a shortfall of 53.02 per cent of electricity customers remain unmetered, as 6.47 million, out of the 13.77 million registered electricity customers (46.98 percent) across the 12 DISCOs, as of 31 March 2025, are metered.

This means a huge setback for the various schemes initiated by government since the privatization in 2013 in the drive to close the metering gap in the electricity sector going by the growing customer base annually.

200,000 meters already supplied – Minister’s aide

Responding to inquiries on the meter issue, Special Adviser to the Minister of Power on Media, Mr. Bolaji Tunji, stated that over 200, 000 meters had been distributed to customers. 

Speaking to Sunday Vanguard, Tunji said, “The government has identified these challenges and has set in motion modalities to address them and ensure that the shortfall of 6 million Nigerians is closed within a couple of years.

“The government has set aside N700 billion for the procurement of the meters and bidding are ongoing.

“Already, the target is to distribute 2 million meters annually. But, since we started late, our target will hit 1 million customers before the year end. I can tell you that some Band A customers are receiving their meters which is free.”

Addressing the racketeering crisis within the DISCOs, he said, “Customers who are finding it hard to get meters should lay complaint with the appropriate quarters, which is the NERC, as they frown and penalize culprit if found in such infractions.”

Many schemes, little headway

The several metering schemes implemented in the electricity sector to address the metering gap and reduce estimated billing include the Credited Advance Payment for Metering Implementation (CAPMI), the Meter Asset Provider (MAP) scheme, and the National Mass Metering Programme (NMMP). 

According to the breakdown of the schemes, CAPMI was introduced in 2013 and allowed customers to pay upfront for meters, with DISCOs obligated to install them within 45 days.

Also, customers were to be reimbursed through exemptions from fixed charges and a 12 percent interest rate on their payment, as the scheme faced challenges, including meter unavailability and customer resistance, leading to limited success. 

The MAP scheme was launched in 2018 by NERC to accelerate meter rollout by involving third-party providers.

The scheme includes procure, supply, install, and maintain meters, while customers could pay upfront or through monthly installments.

Despite efforts, technical and payment challenges hindered the scheme’s full potential. 

The NMMP, launched in 2020, aimed to accelerate metering, eliminate estimated billing, and boost local meter manufacturing.

Its first phase targeted one million meters while the second phase aimed for four million and relied on funding from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to DISCOs. 

While claiming to have improved installation speed compared to MAP, the program has also faced criticism. 

Other initiatives set out by government involved Service-Based Tariff (SBT) which was introduced by NERC to link tariffs to service delivery, aiming for better quality of supply; Meter Acquisition Fund (MAF) which was developed to address DISCOs creditworthiness issues and accelerate meter deployment. 

Later on, there was the Vendor and DISCOs Financed Frameworks involving financing models where vendors or DISCOs provided meters. 

Meanwhile, these schemes gulped billions of naira without meeting targets of metering a large number of Nigerians unmetered (about 53 percent) currently bedeviled with crazy bills in a higher tariff regime in the hands of DISCOs.

Radical approach, meter franchising needed – Experts

While proffering solutions to the crisis bedeviling the metering schemes, experts are calling for a radical approach.

Energy scholar, Prof Wunmi Iledare, explained that solving the problem starts with correctly identifying its root causes.  

“If funding is the issue, make meters available and let consumers pay through energy credits”, he said.

“If meter availability is a problem, empower local manufacturers. If corruption or lack of transparency is the problem, NERC must enforce stricter regulations and sanctions”. 

For his part, Executive Director of PowerUp Nigeria, Adetayo Adegbemle, said, “One of the reasons we remain in this situation is because government intervention has never been a solution.

“We are talking about the privatized power sector here, on what grounds is the government intervening?

“I have said it, we have had many interventions from government and we have the recent one called PMI.

“As we speak, there is no document you can hold the government to ascertain whether or not their project was successful.

“There is no policy document to point out what their targets and ideas speak to.

“The problem is as much about accountability as it is about policy direction. “I am of the opinion that there is a need to have meter franchising.

“This involves that all bands be given to meter companies and the plans included in the tariff. “But, unfortunately, we don’t have serious businessmen as the people who should address these issues are benefiting from the rot in the system.”

“We need a radical approach as the metering gap keeps increasing yearly and that will continue to happen because we don’t have the total number of customers on the grid.

“We need to change the methods and stop government intervention because throwing money will never solve the problem.

“Come up with investors’ friendly policy that will be tied up to the tariff.”

QUOTE: To confirm customers’ complaints, Sunday Vanguard logged in and tried to initiate payment in the afternoon over a period of one week, but the portal froze

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