•Say government-led interventions deepening corruption
•Push for liberalised private-sector franchises to bridge over 7m deficit
More than seven years since Nigeria launched its flagship Meter Asset Provider (MAP) scheme, energy stakeholders said the chronic metering deficit has barely changed, with millions of households still trapped in estimated billing amid inefficiency and entrenched corruption.
Stakeholders in the power sector are now demanding that the Federal Government step back from direct funding or implementing metering rollouts and liberalise the system to enable the private-sector-led approach to drive the cause to replicate the 2000s telecoms revolution.
President of the Nigeria Consumer Protection Network, Kunle Olubiyo, did not mince words about the need to liberalise the system. Speaking on the state of the metering drive, Olubiyo declared that repeated interventions by the Ministry of Power and the Presidency have failed to produce results but only breed corruption.
“There are no clear-cut directions. What we keep hearing is ‘it is coming’, but nothing concrete (has happened). There is nowhere in the world where the Ministry of Finance or the Ministry of Power handle day-to-day metering. Metering is an operational business. When the government gets involved, there is more to it than meets the eye; it becomes a mass of corruption,” he said.
Successive administrations have poured billions of naira into the power sector through the National Mass Metering Programme (NMMP), the MAP Scheme and, most recently, the Meter Asset Financing (MAF) disbursements.
Yet the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) itself admits that over seven million customers remain unmetered, after several failed attempts at closing the gap since the 2013 privatisation.
Olubiyo argued that this has stifled investment and trust. “If you have a large demand, why have you not unlocked it? Look at telecoms, we went from 200,000 landlines to millions of mobile lines within five years because the market was opened. Today, we are doing the opposite in metering,” he added.
His concern goes beyond funding. He warned that the influx of cheap, poor-quality meters, mostly imported, is another symptom of a broken system.
“We are importing unserviceable meters from Asia. If you buy a TV or phone without a service centre, what happens when it spoils? It becomes scrap,” he said.
He added that there is a need to deregulate metering, enforce strict quality standards, provide fiscal incentives like tax waivers for local meter assemblers and create clear refund frameworks that remove excuses for estimated billing.
“Government can never close this gap,” Olubiyo said, advising: “What they should do is create the policy, set the standards, make sure meters are not substandard and let the market deliver. The same way people buy phones worth hundreds of thousands, they will pay for meters if the process is clear and fair,” he added.
For the Executive Director of PowerUp Nigeria, Adetayo Adegbemle, the problem is as much about accountability as it is about policy direction. He said MAP implementation has left customers stranded, from clunky registration portals to delayed refunds.
“There is not enough evidence that people who paid for meters via MAP are being refunded. MAP is a sachet solution; it cannot provide the millions of meters we need,” he said.
Adegbemle wants a franchise model – an open market where private investors can roll out meters directly to feeders and customers, with their capital recovered through secure deductions at source.
“This cannot be a distribution company (DisCo)-led. Everyone is weary of DisCo management. Government interventions have failed because no check and balances was built into policies,” he noted.
He pointed to the Central Bank of Nigeria’s NMMP Phase 0 as a cautionary tale, saying: “Even after CBN froze some accounts, it ended there, no consequences. That is how public funds keep disappearing.”
