How Ikeja Electric Frustrates FG’s Metering Initiative Daily
The plan to meter 4,606,106 electricity consumers in the country without prepaid meters is in jeopardy owing to systemic hiccups, including poor logistics and deliberate frustration of the initiative by electricity distribution companies, Business Hallmark findings can reveal.
The Meter Asset Provider (MAP) scheme, it would be recalled, was flagged off on May 1, 2019, by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) as part of measures to address issues of estimated billing by distribution companies.
Under the arrangement, the MAPs are to provide, install, maintain customers’ meters and end estimated billing.
According to the regulation guiding MAP operation, after the completion of the Know Your Customer (KYC) form, the premises of a customer must be visited within 7 days for assessment, while a meter asset provider must install a customer’s meter within 10 days of payment for such meter.
While a single-phase meter cost N38, 850, a three-phase meter costs N70, 350. These are all-inclusive of VAT.
With the introduction of the program, operators of the scheme are expected to meter unmetered electricity users in Nigeria by May 2022.
However, seven months after the initiative was flagged off, most Nigerians are still without pre-paid meters, as findings revealed that getting a meter in Nigeria is like threading a camel through the eyes of the needle.
A six-month investigation of the metering exercise revealed that it takes a minimum of forty five days for a fortunate customer to get a prepaid meter, with the not so lucky ones having to wait for over three months or more to get metered by the three-meter asset providers approved by NERC for IE, namely Mojec International Limited, Consolidated Infrastructure Group Ltd and New Hamshire Capital Ltd.
The investigation focused on the six Ikeja Electric (IE) business units, Abule-Egba, Akowonjo, Ikeja, Ikorodu, Oshodi, and Shomolu. The IE network serves the northern part of Lagos State and parts of Ogun State.
The entire MAP area includes most of mainland Lagos, extending as far as Ikorodu and Epe, and the bordering areas of Ogun State, serving over 700,000 customers.
Customers’ travails did not end there. Many of the installed meters which developed faults after their installations have not been fixed, several months after.
It was also discovered that several customers whose meters had already been installed have not received the mandatory ‘token’ which enables them to buy energy.
In other to understand how the scheme works, our Correspondent filed out a Know Your Customer (KYC) form on June 25, 2019, to be able to apply for a meter.
The application was approved the same day, with a promise that a MAP agent would visit his residence within seven days for assessment.
However, the seven days waiting period turned to over fifteen days. It took several calls and complaints to the customer care unit of the Ikeja Electric before an agent showed up on for the necessary assessment on July 11. After the assessment, our reporter was issued a customized teller to make payment to the bank which he made the following day.
Then, another long wait began. It took technicians from Conlog, the approved MAP, weeks to install the meter.
The installation did not go without some drama. Our correspondent who was at work received on September 3 from one of the installers that his meter was ready for installation and asked for direction to his residence.
He was told to drive in from Abule-Egba to be able to access Olaniyi in New Oko-Oba. The reporter, however, received a shock when he was told that he was on foot and not driving.
Concerned for his well being, as he was carrying his tools, several prepaid meters, and a supposed ladder, he was advised to take a bike which would be paid for.
He arrived several minutes later, carrying more than seven meters on his head. After putting down his tools and the metres, he demanded a ladder.
Unfortunately, there was no ladder in sight. Another 45 minutes was wasted searching for a ladder in the neighborhood which was eventually gotten for a fee of N1, 000.
When the installer was asked why it should be the customer that should get a ladder, he opened up that the operation was poorly funded, explaining that no provisions were made for ladders.
He even went further to say that since they don’t have operational vehicles to go around and are required to be jumping from commercial buses and bikes, it is practically impossible for him and his colleagues to be dragging ladders around the streets on Lagos.
Further checks revealed that the 37 days it took IE/Conlog to install our Correspondent’s meter was one of the fastest and an exception. Again on September 9, 2019, our correspondent applied for three prepaid meters, two for the same house and another within the neighborhood.
After waiting endlessly for almost a month for the visit of MAP agents for verification, a worker at Conlog was contacted and he promised to come for the assessment for a fee.
The next day, October 11, he came for the assessment and delivered three customized Zenith Bank tellers for the meters after money had exchanged hands.
The next day, October 10, payment was made at the Marine Branch, Apapa of Zenith Bank and another long wait began.
After 21 days of waiting, precisely on November 1, 2019, two Conlog installers showed up to install the meters.
As in the first visit, ladders were gotten for them for a fee. After some three hours of working, the meters were fixed and the two technicians departed.
However, at around 5.00 pm the same day, November 1, one of the meters tripped off. Despite several visits to the Ikeja Electric office at Jankara in Ijaiye-Ojokoro and calls to Conlog officials, the meter has not been fixed.
The affected apartment is currently in darkness with no solution in sight. At the time of going to press, only one of the three meters is working.
Apart from the faulty meter, no ‘token’ has been received to activate the faulty and the third meters. After the 100 units energy preloaded on the third meter was exhausted on November 20, the occupants of the apartment have not been able to buy energy and have since been in darkness.
An activation ‘token’ is normally received by a customer after three days of meter installation. Without a successful loading of the token, a customer cannot buy energy. Many calls to Conlog and visits to IK Jankara Undertaking have not yielded positive results.
Despite several assurances from Conlog, the problem has not been fixed.
In other to further test the execution of the scheme, BH on November 4, filled out two more KYC forms for account numbers 0101473812 and 0101473813 in order to apply for two meters.
Up till Friday, December 6, 32 days after, no MAP agent has shown up for assessment/verification and issuing of tellers for payment.
BH checks revealed that the problems associated with the metering exercise observed by our Correspondent were not isolated but alarmingly widespread.
Many Lagosians within the Ikeja Electric jurisdiction have one or more tales of woe to tell. Visits to IE business units and undertaking offices in Ogba, Ikeja, Jankara, Akute, Abule-Egba, Olayiwola, Fagba, Iju-Ishaga, and many others shows that problems from the MAP program are endemic.
A cursory glance at the visitors’ registers in all IE offices visited by BH indicates that over 95 percent of visitors to the offices visited the Customer Care Unit (CCU).
It was also observed that over 50 percent of the complaints were related to pre-paid meters issues, while over 40 were related to disagreements over billing.
Some of the aggrieved customers who spoke with BH lamented the poor services rendered by the distribution company and its approved meter assets providers.
A visibly angry octogenarian, Madam Peju Ogundaisi, was seen complaining to one of the customer service officials at the IE Jankara office that her meter stopped working two days after it was installed.
The lady official could not offer any help as she implored her to contact the installer as only he could fix the problem.
She explained that she had been calling the installer without getting any response.
All efforts to get the help of the customer care official proved futile as she dismissed the old women, calling for the next victim on line.
Fortunately for the woman, as she leaving the CCU, she came face to face with the installer who came for some documentation of jobs done.
She quickly grabbed the installer telling him to follow her to fix her meter. However, the installer told her that he was busy and still had more than six meters to install that same day.
He promised to come another day for the repair, but Madam Ogundaisi was adamant, insisting that she might not see him again if he was allowed to leave. BH could not wait to see how the matter was resolved as their argument dragged on for over 30 minutes.
During the investigation, a group of residents in Olaniyi and New Oko-Oba protested at the Fagba office of IE against the non-availability of meters and estimated billing.
One of the leaders of the group, Olabanji Adegoke, who led a group of protesting youths to the Olayiwola/Fagba office of Ikeja Electric over the non-metering of their houses, alleged that the firm deliberately refused to give them prepaid meters.
“We are tired of being deceived by IE. I think this is intentional. Some people within the discos are sabotaging the MAP scheme because I see no reason why we want to use our own money to buy meters they should normally provide and yet, they are still not ready to give it to us.
“We are not going to accept the estimated bills anymore. House rent is now cheaper than electricity. We would continue to carry out peaceful protests until they hearken to our cry.
“For more than three years now, we have been cheated by Ikeja Electric and we are not going to take that any longer. We are shutting down payment, as from today until they bring prepaid meters for us,” Olabanji had said.
It was also gathered that most of the hiccups been experienced are deliberate obstacles by distribution companies to sabotage the ambitious metering plan in order to continue to benefit from the old billing system.
A source in NERC told BH that the body is not unaware of the allegations. He confided that NERC had received several complaints against distribution companies bothering on the deliberate frustration of the initiative.
“One of the allegations is that they fail to send completed KYC forms to meter assets providers for prompt mobilization.
The argument is that the longer the delay, the longer the old regime of bill collection will continue. We are investigating several complaints and any firm found wanting would be appropriately sanctioned”, the source said.
Checks also revealed that the metering exercise is also bogged down by several hiccups. One of them is poor funding.
Due to the fixed rate of the meters by the Federal Government, and the increasing cost of production, the MAPs, short of funds, could not deploy enough resources and manpower for the exercise.
While virtually all their installers employ the services of commercials buses and bikes to get to their destinations, customers are also made to bear the cost of providing tools such as ladders.
The MAPs, it was gathered, are short of funding and could not afford to deploy the necessary equipment needed for the operation.
“As for the MAPs, they have their own challenges. Some are not equipped financially to handle the task.
The task of installing meters is daunting. It requires a huge investment. People have to be on the road all the time.
And they need logistics such as vehicles, fueling, ladders, Internet to access accounts and so on.
“As we all know, the cost of living has gone up in the country and the MAPs are not allowed to increase the cost of meters. So what they do is to try to cut costs.
Instead of providing operational vehicles for their workers, they pay them BTAs to facilitate their movements. We know that this has its own shortcomings.
They have to wait for vehicles to fill up; if transport fares increase which is common in Lagos, they have to find a way around it.
For example, if they were giving N100 transport fare to go to an installation site, and the fare increased to maybe N150, what will happen? They have to wait for a cheaper vehicle or even trek to the place which eats up their time”, the NERC source also noted.
An economist, Bayo Oyenusi, argued that with over 86.9 million Nigerians living in extreme poverty, transferring the burden of electricity meters to customers without proper payment plan may not adequately bridge the country’s metering gap.
“Affordability of pre-paid meters in a country where over 86.9 million Nigerians live on less than one dollar per day will be a major hindrance to the MAP initiative”, Oyenusi maintained.
The Coordinator of Electricity Consumer Advocacy Network, Mr. Akeem Balogun, expressed doubts that MAP could provide meters to customers across the country, saying resolving the issue of estimated billing and closing the metering gap, in view of the number of people in need of the service, were doubtful.
He said NERC, in line with its regulation, allows customers to procure meters from a third party at their own expense, adding that it is not certain that everybody who applied for meters would get them because the Ministry of Power is not giving adequate supervision to the implementation of the MAP policy.
Also, a former chairman of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Dr. Sam Amadi, said recently that estimated billing might not end soon because electricity distribution companies are trying to cheat.
Amadi made this revelation while answering questions on the Meter Asset Providers (MAPs) regulation initiated by the commission at a programme on Arise Television, monitored by BH.
He said the scheme was not a good policy compared to the previous metering intervention put in place by the commission.
“First, we should admit that estimated billing might not go out quickly for some reason. One, you have to deal with issues of metering and, of course, the incentive for DisCos, trying to cheat where they can. I think MAP wasn’t a very good policy in the first place.
“We had the Credited Advance Payment for Metering Initiative, CAPMI in 2013 to fill the huge metering gap and resolve funding challenges. The scheme allowed customers to pay for the meter and the cost is refunded in the form of credit units over a period of 36 months with interest.
“Since DisCos do not have the kind of finance in terms of borrowing from banks or elsewhere to finance the massive deployment of meters as required in the industry, customers now provide that fund; that plan is far superior in my view to MAP,” Amadi said.
