Another intervention by the Federal Government and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in the power sector will soon deliver four million free electricity prepaid meters to Nigerians.
The Minister of Power, Mamman Saleh, told State House correspondents after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari that the meters were being provided by the CBN.
Recall that the Apex Bank had in keeping with its promise to augment the government’s distribution of free prepaid meters with additional four million units and also gave N33.45 billion to nine DisCos for the procurement of 605,852 meters.
In March 2021, it released N123.34 billion to Distribution Companies (DisCos) for improved electricity supply in the country while N89.89 billion was disbursed under the Nigerian Electricity Market Stabilisation Facility (NEMSF 2) to 11 DisCos to improve the electricity.
Mamman Saleh The minister said:” Government is almost getting through with the distribution of its initial one million meters to Nigerians tagged the Phase zero, and would soon commence the distribution of the four million, which he tagged Phase one.
“We are now going into phase one of the distribution of the metres, that is the remaining four million the Central Bank promised to augment.
“The first set is one million, we are about to finish with that, but you know, it is not the target, one million is very negligible compared to the demand of Nigerians.”
While noting that there has been an improvement in power generation, Saleh disclosed that Nigeria is now generating about 5,000 megawatts from the initial 3,000 megawatts. “We are improving, it (power generation) has improved, you can see, I don’t have to tell you.
“We are moving from 3000 megawatts, today we are generating up to 5000 megawatts or over that. So it is a great improvement,” the power minister said. According to him, the government is ensuring that supply is stable and also working towards ensuring that it upgrades the supply from say 4000 megawatts to 5000 to 6000 to 7000 megawatts.
“The more we replace some obsoletes and outdated equipment, the more we improve the supply of electricity,”‘ he explained.
On the report that in some states about 70 per cent of Nigerians enjoy less than 12 hours of electricity per day, Saleh said: “It all depends. You know we have graded the supply based on the metering.
“Unless the meters are sufficient, we will not know which and where to push 24 hours supplies because there are some people who are ready for 24 hours and there are those who are not ready for 24 hours supply of light.
“We have graded according to that priorities and like we have been saying, I will keep telling Nigerians that this tariff issue, those who are not getting 24 hours are not equally charged like those who are getting 24 hours.
“So, there is a difference. Until you have a meter, then you will know what you consume at the end of the day.”
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