The Federal Government says it will deploy seven million smart meters, through its Presidential Metering Initiative, to end estimated billing and revenue leakages.
Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Energy, Olu Verheijen, disclosed this in an interview with newsmen in Abuja yesterday.
Ms. Verheijen, who was speaking on the second year anniversary of the Tinubu administration, said the smart meters would end collection losses for most of the customers who are on-grid and unmetered. She said the meter deployment is one of the initiatives of the administration to resolve and improve the commercial value-chain of gas to power.
The Special Adviser said the Government is also working to clear its legacy debt that accumulated as a result of inability to fund electricity subsidies, saying the debt also accumulated due to the Distribution Company (DisCos)’ inability to collect and perform at the expected level.
She said: “We plan to clear the legacy debt with a mix of cash and promissory notes to ensure that the Generation companies (GenCos) and the gas suppliers are also paid. In addition to this, we are making sure that we improve revenue assurance by ensuring that most customers on the grid are metered”.
“With this, ,we can end estimated billing and ensure that we reduce collection losses so that customers who get electricity are paying customers”, she added.
In exchange for the resolution of the legacy debts, Ms. Verheijen said the government would demand that all the actors and investors across the value chain improve their performance, deploy more capital to expand more on-grid access.
She said the administration is working to ensure improvement in the governance of the DisCo’s, being the cash engine of the entire value-chain.
According to her, through the regulatory frameworks in place, government would ensure DisCos’ financial and technical capacity to deliver more reliable power to Nigerian homes and businesses.
