Six months after Aba Power, Nigeria’s 12th and newest electricity distribution company, keyed into the Federal Government-led Meter Asset Programme (MAP) to provide prepaid meters to its customers, the firm has launched its own programme to accelerate the process of making prepaid meters available to all electricity users in the Aba Ringfence which comprises nine out of the 17 local government areas in Abia State.
Known as the Aba Power Mass Metering Programme (APMMP), it will provide meters to electricity users without prepayment.
“We have decided on this revolutionary step because the meter penetration in the 17 LGAs which we serve is very poor”, explained Patrick Umeh, the Aba Power managing director who used to be a commissioner with the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).
“Our chairman, Professor Bart Nnaji, a former Minister of Power, has directed us to do everything within our power to alleviate the sufferings of electricity users by giving them prepaid meters, even if it will have a heavy cost implication to us; it is a cost we are willing to bear as a socially responsible corporate organisation.
“More importantly, professor Nnaji has directed us to do everything we can to promote transparency and accountability in our services which prepaid meters support”.
The APMMP will start this week with the Aba Township 11KV Feeder because it has more power available than most feeders in the Aba Ringfence and so will benefit many more persons.
The Aba Power MD said that the metering programme will be run in phases because of the huge cost.
“It will cost N14bn to provide 200,000 customers with meters”, noted Anthony Alozie, the Geometric Power chief financial officer who until recently was a top executive with Halliburton, a leading American oil and gas services multinational.
“We honestly do not know when they will get to every customer.
“Therefore, those who cannot wait to get prepaid meters through the Aba Power Mass Metering Programme can quickly get theirs through the ongoing Meter Asset Programme (MAP) of the Federal Government promoted by such bodies as NERC and the Central Bank of Nigeria”.
A customer who wants to acquire a single-phase meter through MAP will pay about N67,000 in advance and about N118,000 to procure a three-phase meter, though Aba Power allows payment by installment to assist customers
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One major difference between getting a meter under MAP and obtaining it through the Aba Power Mass Metering Programme is that the former enables a customer to get it within 10 days after payment whereas the time frame for securing a meter through the latter arrangement is not known.
“The prepaid meters under our new arrangement are given out in phases, that is, from feeder to feeder”, stated Umeh who explained that Aba Power is running both arrangements simultaneously because of the advantages inherent in each.
For an electricity distribution company that commenced operations only last year, according to Engr Phillip Ugwu, a former chief executive of the Olorunsogo Power Plant in Ogun State, “Aba Power is setting standards and deserves commendation”.
