Electricity Meters' Price Goes Up, Read Why

The cost of acquiring a prepaid electricity meter in Nigeria has surprisingly risen!

Prepaid Meters

This is said to be a s a result of the fall in the value of the naira following the currency’s recent devaluation by the Central Bank of Nigeria. Before now,  the single-phase meter was sold for N25,000 as against the latest price, N39,375. Also, the three-phase meter which now goes for N60,909 sold for N50,000 before now.

This 56 per cent and  20 per cent sharp increase goes to show that users of the single-phase meters will incure more expenses pay more for the devices in relative terms compared to the users of the three-phase meters. Punch made it known that the increase in price of the meters came about due to the fact that the meters in the Nigerian electricity market were imported and that the rising exchange rate of the naira to the United States dollar was posing a huge problem to importers of the product.

For companies assembling the different components of the meters locally, the challenge is the same because foreign exchange is needed to import the components.

Confirming the current cost of the meters, the spokesperson for the Eko Electricity Distribution Company, Mr. Godwin Idemudia, said, “The single-phase smart meter is N39,375, while three-phase meter is N60,901,” adding that the company was no longer installing ordinary prepaid meters.

Also in a telephone interview with Punch, the spokesperson for the Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company, Mr. Pekun Adeyanju, made it known that the company had not commenced its metering programme yet; but was looking at starting it on or before May. Urging users to be patient with the firm, he said the company was taking its time to ensure that the meters it would introduce to customers meet up with global standard and could stand the test of time.

The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Powercap Limited, Mr. Biodun Ogunleye, also in a telephone interview made it known that Nigeria was largely a foreign currency regulated economy, hence, the huge effect of the devaluation of the naira, especially  imported commodities, electricity meters inclusive.

With the realities on the ground, he said there was no way the pricing of the meters would not be altered. Ogunleye said, “A lot of inputs have to be imported, and ultimately, those inputs will be passed onto the consumers at the cost plus margins. As a result, the costs of bringing in meters will go up; and there is nothing anybody can do about it. “It is a priority that must be implemented because the people who are operating in the market will be interested in maximising their revenue. They will not want to encourage any form of income leakages.

“We have one or two local plants that can produce meters. The high foreign exchange may prompt the government to intervene, and thus make the business more profitable. “But bear in mind that when it comes to meters like many other electronics, the specification and a couple of other factors between the distribution companies and the meter manufacturers must be adhered in order to drive patronage.”

He said EKEDC was looking at installing prepaid meters that could be monitored from its offices, adding that the move was targeted at ensuring that communication was enhanced between it and the meters, notwithstanding where they were installed. However, the Chief Executive Officer, EKEDC, Mr. Oladele Amoda, during the company’s first quarter meeting with the media on Monday, said it was looking at investing $20m in providing meters to residential users as well as other smaller consumers of electricity.

For its key customer group, he said about $15m would be committed to meter provision, promising that over 300,000 meters would be installed by the end of the metering programme.

It would be recalled that just few months ago, The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)  announced the devaluation of the naira, with the new exchange officially at N168 to a dollar, and no longer N155. Although a month after that, the CBN vows not to further devalue the naira, however, this has proven not to be so as naira has now risen to N198.95.