NERC Wants Pre-paid Meters for Urban Customers

Onyinye Ubanagu
08.30.2007

Lagos

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has told the power distribution companies in the country to connect their customers in the urban centres to pre-paid meters. NERC’s Commissioner for Government and Consumer Affairs, Mrs. Grace Eyoma, said this in an interview on Wednesday as she explained that the use of pre-paid meter was in the best interest of both the distribution companies and their customers. She explained that “the pre-paid meters would save the consumers the harrowing experience of crazy bills and mass-disconnections by the utility companies. "It would also assist the consumers to efficiently manage their consumption patterns and conserve energy," she said."There is plan to roll out these meters, especially in the urban centres. It will allow the operators have enough money to do their business and the banks will find it easier to do business with them. "They will be able to get banks support because they can show them the cash flow. I think it is a much better arrangement and nobody will feel cheated that way."

She said the use of pre-paid meters would soon gain wider acceptability when she made reference to the success rate of pre-paid billing system in the telecommunication industry. Only last month, the commission told the distribution companies to sparingly use mass-disconnections of electricity consumers as a strategy to collect unpaid electricity bills.