As complaints over unavailability of prepaid meters for some energy consumers in the country continues, Austin Atakpu, the Managing Director of TCS Paymeters Ltd., manufacturers of pre-paid metres explained reasons why it is taking more time for houses in Nigeria to get pre-paid meters.
Atakpu revealed this while granting an interview to newsmen in Benin on Tuesday. He said that metering of houses in the country is a gradual process and not automatic.
Atakpu said that the Federal Government was concerned about the manufacturing of meters and it was doing everything possible to ensure that every house was metered.
He added that prepaid metering was an expanding business, as the demand for meters was huge for Electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos) to meet at a go.
“It is not a demand that can be met overnight, because new houses are being built on a daily basis and they require meters,’’ Atakpu said.
For instance, he said, one could not say, as of today, that the meter requirement for this state is five because by the time you wake up tomorrow there will be about 10 or 15 new houses that will require meters.
“There are also a number of existing houses that do not have meters, so satisfying all of these will be gradual and achieved in no distant time.’’
It could be recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari promised that every house in the country will be metered before the end of his administration to end the problem of estimated billing.
In a bid to fulfill this promise, the Federal Government announced the distribution of six million free prepaid meters to Nigerians in October 2020 through the National Mass Metering Programme.
The programme was launched in Eko, Kano, Kaduna and Ikeja Distribution Companies (DisCos) franchise areas.
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