By Uthman Salami
In its quest to improve and boost electricity supply in Nigeria, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has disbursed N156.33 billion to Distribution Companies (DisCos) in the country.
This was made known by CBN in its Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) Communique on Tuesday.
According to the document, CBN disbursed N36.04 billion to 17 Meter Asset Providers and nine DisCos, for the procurement and installation of 657,562 electricity meters.
In addition, the bank, under its Nigerian Electricity Market Stabilization Facility-2 initiative, disbursed N129.29 billion to 11 DisCos.
This fund was to provide liquidity support and stimulate critical infrastructure investment needed to improve service delivery and collection efficiency.
According to CBN, “On the National Mass Metering Programme (NMMP), N36.04 billion was disbursed to 17 Meter Asset Providers, to nine (9) DisCos, for the procurement and installation of 657,562 electricity meters.
“On the Nigerian Electricity Market Stabilization Facility – 2 (NEMSF-2), the CBN released N120.29 billion to 11 DisCos, to provide liquidity support and stimulate critical infrastructure investment needed to improve service delivery and collection efficiency.”
Earlier, President Muhammadu Buhari had approved the National Mass Metering Program (NMMP) implementation to fast track metering process.
The gap is estimated to be over 10 million, comprising of unmetered customers as well as customers with obsolete meters that need to be replaced.
The thrust of this initiative is to increase Nigeria’s metering rate, expunge the arbitrary estimated billing, strengthen the local meter value chain by increasing local meter manufacturing, assembly and deployment capacity and support Nigeria’s economic recovery by creating jobs in the local meter value chain.