BEDC installs 25% of 90,870 pre-paid meters under NMMP

The Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC), has installed over 25 per cent of its 90,870 meters target under the first phase of National Mass Metering Programme (NMMP), which is to be concluded in the next three months.

The BEDC Corporate Affairs manager, Tayo Adekunle, made the disclosure at the end of a town hall meeting on ‘Facilitating Metering and Combating Electricity Theft in BEDC States,’ organised by Stakeholders Democracy Network (SDN) in Benin City, Edo State.

Adekunle said the firm was implementing NNMP in its four franchise states – Delta, Edo, Ekiti and Ondo – to eliminate estimated billing.

“BEDC is now installing meters on the pole for customers in bands A, B and C as the initial focus to curtail energy theft and meter bypass while the company has also begun community metering where transformers of over 600 communities have been metered so far,” Adekunle said.

Adekunle who expressed satisfaction with the growing joint efforts by communities in combating electricity theft in the BEDC coverage areas, noted that metering under NNMP is free, adding that customers do not have to pay while BEDC and industry stakeholders can sue and be sued on account of electricity theft and consumer rights violation.

“The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) is carrying out electricity consumer education and interfacing between customers and DisCos for complaints resolution,” he said.