In a move to address the over eight-million-meter gap in the country and reduce the liquidity squeeze in the Nigeria Electricity Supply Industry (NESI), the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, has resolved a two-decade-long deadlock, securing a N32 billion agreement for the supply of meters to distribution companies (DisCos).
In 2003, the federal government entered a tripartite agreement with Messrs Ziklagsis Network Limited and Unistar International for the supply of three million meters to DisCos in three years.
According to a statement by the Minister’s Special Adviser on Strategic Communications and Media Relations, Bolaji Tunji, the project commenced in 2003 with the disbursement of a N32 billion metering loan to Messrs Ziklagsis.
However, the agreement was not fulfilled while the funds remained in Ziklagsis’ bank account at Prudent Bank, later transitioning to Skye Bank, Polaris.
With the privatisation of DisCos, the government proposed the metering of ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) to accurately determine their consumption and mitigate accruing debts.
Tunji said the minister took the issue to the presidency to recover the revolving fund from Messrs Ziklagsis along with the accumulated interest up to date, which has received the President’s approval.
Following the President’s approval, a total of N12.7 billion is said to have been disbursed to De Haryor Global Services for the commencement of the installation of smart meters that had already been procured.
Concerned about its growing electricity debt, the Nigerian Army wrote a letter to the presidency seeking intervention to settle the outstanding debt and facilitate metering for their formations. In response, the federal government instructed the ministry to address the army’s request and allocate the funds in collaboration with Ziklagsis.
Tunji said: “It was then that Ziklagsis was introduced to the Nigerian army by the Ministry of Power. It was around this period that the Nigerian Army also introduced De Haryor Global Services to Ziklagsis to enable them to work together. In November 2022, discussion began on the project among the parties and an agreement was signed between the Nigerian Army as a client, Messrs Ziklagsis as project supervisor and De Haryor Global Services as a service provider to commence the metering projects in Army barracks at a cost of N12.7billion, under the MDAs metering project.
“This predates the appointment of Adelabu as Minister of Power. Despite this, the money was not released to the service provider that had already gone ahead to seek funds for the acquisition of smart meters.”
