The federal government through the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has approved an upwards price increase in the price of pre paid electricity meters in the country.
Making the announcement in a circular dated 5 September 2023 and signed by the commission’s Chairman and Commissioner Legal, Licencing and compliance, Sanusi Garba and Dafe Akpeneye, respectively, it stated that a single phase pre paid meter would now cost N81,975.16k from the N58,661.69k while three phase pre paid meters is increased to N143,836.10k from N109,684.36k.
The commission’s order was addressed to managing directors of all electricity Distribution Companies (Discos) and all Meter Asset Providers (MAP).
By implication, it means that Nigerians will pay N23,313.47 and N34,151.74 more to get the 11 Discos to provide them with the single phase and three-phase meters, according to the new order.
The circular said the new price was to ensure a fair and reasonable pricing of meters to both MAPs and end-use customers.
“Ensure MAP’s ability to recover reasonable costs associated with meter procurement and maintenance while ensuring that their pricing structure allows for a viable return on investment. Evaluate the affordability of meter services for consumers, aiming to prevent excessive pricing that could burden end-users. Ensure that MAPs are able to provide meters to end-use customers in the prevailing economic realities.
Before now, Nigerians had been confronted with several hikes in the prices of meters, with one of them taking place in June 2021 when the industry regulator increased the price by about 30 per cent.
In June 2020, NERC increased the price by about 14 per cent . Again, it increased in July of the same year, when the new 7.5 per cent VAT was introduced and on the back of falling naira value.
The pricing template indicated that in April 2020, a single phase meter sold for N39,991.50 while a three phase meter went for N67,055.85. But in June 2020, the single phase meter rose to N44,896.17 while the three phase meter sold for N82,855.19.
Statistics show that the number of unmetered customers across Nigeria has continued to rise. In 2022, a metering status report from NERC showed that about 5 million of the registered accounts of customers were unmetered.
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