Unless there is a last-minute intervention, about three million electricity customers may be forced into estimated billing or outright darkness due to their failure to upgrade their prepaid meters.
This is as a consumer group estimated that half of the 5,993,340 metered customers would be caught in the web of the government policy.
But another group opined that anybody who has not upgraded his meter until now should be one of those Nigerians who like to display lackadaisical attitudes towards government policies, saying the upgrade started last year.
In the past 10 days, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission has repeatedly reminded Nigerians of the need to upgrade their meters.
“Have you updated your meter yet? From November 24, 2024, you may not be able to recharge your meter without updating. However, updating is easy and free.
“DisCos have already commenced issuance of two free Key Change Tokens which will update your meter.
“The update will not affect the units in your meter, nor will it make your meter run faster than usual. Contact your DisCo for more information,” the NERC said in a post on its handles.
As the NERC continued to sensitise consumers to the meter update, most of the distribution companies appeared unbothered until the exercise elapsed on Sunday.
As of yesterday, there were various complaints from customers who have yet to update their meters.
While some customers said they encountered technical glitches in their efforts to update their meters, others complained of a lack of electricity and many said they got feedback that their meters could not be updated and they had to be replaced.
A customer of the Ikeja Electric complained of how five meters were phased out in a property of eight flats and the flats were placed on estimated billing, with each asked to pay N268,000 per month.
“In a property I manage at Ikeja, a block of eight flats, IKEDC began by phasing out meters. Five meters have been phased out, and the trend continues. They asked individual flats to apply for direct connection to the pole with monthly estimated bills. Then, each flat should apply and pay for new meters they never brought. The estimated bill now charged for one month per flat is N268,000. How come a three-bedroom flat will consume N268,000 per month? Some don’t even have an air conditioner.
“Three tenants each just received the same bill this week, regardless of their consumption. They went to the IKEDC office to complain, and the officials told them to go and pay their bills,” the property manager complained.
Speaking in an interview with our correspondent, the Executive Director of the Electricity Consumer Protection Advocacy Centre, Princewill Okorie, expressed displeasure over the number of consumers that would be plunged into estimated billing over the meter upgrade.
According to Okorie, more than half of the current metered customers would lose their meters and join the over 7 million unmetered ones.
“More than half of metered customers will be subjected to estimated billing by this policy. The same meter that people are crying for so that they can know what they are consuming, you want to frustrate them with this strategy. You want to bring this strategy to make more consumers go into estimated billing. Are the DisCos obeying the estimated billing methodology approved by NERC?
“So, this is an indirect way of underestimating Nigerians. And I know that, without a meter, whether you use light or not, they will give you a bill. There was a grid collapse for about five days; the moment light came, those unmetered consumers were made to pay as if there was an electricity supply for 24 hours. It is wickedness against the poor,” Okorie lamented.
