*Says only 100% metering the way to go
If you have 100 percent metering, you have solved the problem of liquidity in the market.”
Uket Obanga, National Secretary, Nigerian Electricity Consumers Advocacy Network, has indicated that increasing tariffs is not the silver bullet but rather is running around the actual problem.
He reported made this indication during an interview on Arise Television.
During the interview, Obanga said that “we have three components, which include generation, transmission, and distribution. In the value chain, transmission and distribution don’t have the ability to convey loads and distribute generated power.
He added that “then you come to distribution, you have according to them about 13 million consumers in the market, and out of this 13 million, you have only metered over five million according to them because even if you’re interrogating that metering, you will discover that a significant percentage of the so-called Meter customers are analog meters under NEPA and PHCN that are dysfunctional.
“Meters that are not functional and are still hanging there, which constitute the so-called five or six million-meter customers, then you have a huge unmetered customer population of over seven million plus, and you have not done anything.
On how problems about electricity in this regard can be solved, he added that, “The Meter is a revenue assurance tool that measures electricity consumed and electricity supplied. If you have 100 percent metering, you have solved the problem of liquidity in the market.”
He further added that “the naira is not stable against the dollar; inflation is rising. That tariffs increase either by 15 percent, five percent, or for the so-called high energy consumers is not the silver bullet; it is hypothetical; it’s not going to solve any problem, and I can bet with my life here that by next year we will be talking about another price increase.
