Six million meters are to be deployed nationwide in the first and second quarters of this year to reduce the number of unmetered electricity consumers in Nigeria, the Federal Government has said.
It disclosed in a December 2022 document on the review of the performance of the power sector/Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry under the current administration.
In the document, which was obtained by our correspondent from the Federal Ministry of Power in Abuja on Sunday, the government said it had successfully executed a metering initiative post privatisation with one million meters rolled out in the first phase of the National Mass Metering Programme.
The Minister of Power, Abubakar Aliyu, said the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission were fundamental in designing and implementing this programme.
He said, “We are perfecting plans for an additional six million meters under the second and third phases of the programme that will commence in the first and second quarters of 2023 respectively.
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“The first phase generated 10,000 jobs in installation and assembly and we anticipate over 20,000 additional jobs would be generate in the second phase. Both the phases have sustainable financing structures.”
He said the government was also establishing a Meter Service Fund that would allow for continuous metering in the NESI.
Aliyu said the government would bequeath to Nigerians 4,000 megawatts of additional generating capacity, as it would complete and inaugurate the 700MW Zungeru Hydropower plant in the first quarter of 2023.
“We will also see to the operationalisation of the 240MW Afam III and 300MW Okpai Phase II to mention a few. We will set the country on a stable path for 10,000MW of supplied energy,” he stated.
The minister added, “Today we are at 8,000MW with 5,000MW on-grid and 3,000MW+ of industrial captive off-grid, and we will leave an installed capacity of almost 22,000MW. We also have robust programmes ongoing with facilities and investments secured of over $3bn to eliminate the large gap between our transmission capacity and supplied energy.”
He said the hydropower component of the Kashimbilla Multipurpose Dam was designed and upgraded from 6MW to 40MW with Phase I of the evacuation infrastructure completed in March 2020, covering 245km of
132kV transmission lines and three substations, connecting Takum, Wukari, Rafin Kada, Dounga and Yandev in Taraba and Benue states.
Aliyu said, “The Phase II of the evacuation infrastructure is currently at 45 per cent completion level covering 56km extension of the 132kV transmission line from Yandev to Makurdi and complete rehabilitation of the Yandev substation.
“Phase II of the evacuation infrastructure would lead to the electrification of 24 host communities including Zaki-Biam, Anyi, Buruku, Birama, Bibi, Shibong, among others within Benue State.
“We have changed the narrative of the sector from consumption spending (on subsidies) to real infrastructure spending. A total of 105 power transformer projects were completed during the period 2015 – 2022, adding a capacity of 6,216MVA to the grid, with 73 of the power transformers installed by TCN engineers in substations across the nation.”
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FG revokes N32bn metering contract, vows to sell five DisCos
President Bola Tinubu has ordered the revocation of a N32 billion ($200m) metering contract awarded by the Federal Government since 2021 for non-performance.
Minister of Power Adebayo Adelabu disclosed this and hinted of plans to sell off five electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos) over persistent blackout.
Adelabu spoke on Monday while hosting members of the Senate Committee on Power in his Abuja office.
The minister said the Federal Government had mobilised a company named Messr Zigglass with $200 million (N32 billion) to supply three million meters, but that the firm had failed to deliver.
“If you held N32 billion for these years, where is the interest?” he asked.
According to him, President Tinubu has directed that the contract be revoked.
The government, he said, would bridge the current eight million metering gap in the next four to five years.
The minister also said the funding would be coming from a seed capital of N100 billion and N75 billion.
He added that the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) would come to the aid of the ministry with the funds.
The sale of the five DisCos to reputable technical power operators, he said, would be completed within three months.
He told the committee that tough decisions on the DisCos had become necessary because the entire Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) failed due to the poor performance of the distribution companies.
The minister said the ministry would prevail on the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to revoke underperforming licences and change the management boards of the DisCos if necessary.
Adelabu said, “On distribution, very soon you will see that tough decisions will be taken on the DisCos. They are the last lap of the sector. If they don’t perform, the entire sector is not performing.
“The entire ministry is not performing. We have put pressure on NERC, which is their regulator to make sure they raise the bar on regulation activities.
“If they have to withdraw licences for non-performance, why not? If they have to change the board of management, why not?
“And all the DisCos that are still under AMCON and banks; within the next three months, they must be sold to technical power operators with good reputations in utility management.
“We can no longer afford AMCON to run our DisCos. We can no longer afford the banks to run our DisCos. This is a technical industry and it must be run by technical experts.”
He listed those affected as Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) under the management of the United Bank of Africa (UBA), Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC), Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company and Kano Electricity Distribution Company managed by Fidelity Bank; Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IEDC) is under the AMCON management.
Investors hold 60 per cent of shares in the DisCos. The Federal Government holds the remaining 40 per cent.
Blackout has persisted in most states with DisCos blaming low allocation from the national grid as well as gas shortage to generating companies (GenCos) as the causes.
The minister said that the energy distribution assets are technical and should be managed by experts.
According to him, the Ibadan DisCo is too large for one company to manage.
Responding to the decision to resell the DisCos, a member of the committee, Senator Isah Jibrin, alleged that some of the operators have stripped the assets of the DisCos they took over in 2013.
He insisted that the operators of any revoked DisCo must be compelled to fix the assets as they were prior to handover.
Adelabu blamed issues in the industry on uncompleted projects and appealed to the committee to approve funds for the completion of over 120 projects across the country.
Naira depreciates against dollar as speculators reportedly hoard
The naira fell in value against the US dollar to N1,234 in the official foreign exchange market on Monday, according to statistics from the FMDQ securities exchange.
The currency rate indicates that the naira decreased by N65, or 5.26 percent, from N1,169.99/$1 recorded on Friday.
The local currency had strengthened to about N1,072.74 on Wednesday, as traders expected the naira will trade below N1,000/$1 for the first time.
However, the latest drop appears to coincide with the remarks of the apex bank Governor, Yemi Cardoso, who stated that the intent of the bank was not to defend the Naira, when asked about the sudden drop in external reserves.
Nigeria’s foreign exchange reserves have maintained a one-month dip streak. The latest figures from the Central Bank of Nigeria show the external reserves reached a new low of $32.1bn on April 18, 2024. The reserves dropped by $2.35bn in 31 days, from $34.45bn on March 18, 2024.
But the CBN governor at the International Monetary Fund/World Bank Spring Meetings stated that the bank would refrain from intervening in the exchange unless unusual circumstances arose, stressing that the recent slight shift in reserves was unrelated to defending the naira.
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He said, “I want to make this as clear as possible, it is not in our intention to defend the naira. and as much I have read in the recent few days, some opinions with respect to what is happening with our reserves and if the central bank is defending the naira.”
The national currency had slumped badly in the forex market in the weeks preceding the clampdown on Binance, exchanging for as much as N1,950 in mid-February.
Observers blamed its earlier misfortune on alleged manipulation of the market by Binance. However, some stakeholders have accused the new crypto exchange platforms BYBIT and BITGET for the latest slip.
Analysts suggested that the naira experienced a depreciation over the span of six months from July 2023 to January 2024, particularly evident in the black market following the disbursement of funds by the FAAC to federal, state, and local government authorities.
The summary of the forex transaction showed that the intra-day high depreciated, closing at N1,295 per dollar. The intra-day low also reduced to N1,051/$. While the total daily turnover dropped slightly to $110.17m on Monday.
At the parallel market, currency traders sold the dollar between the rate of N1,250 and N1,270 from N1,154 recorded last Friday.
Bureau de Change operators who spoke to our correspondent said the reason for the new increase in dollar rate was due to market forces, adding they were unsure if there would be more increase or reduction before the end of the week.
The naira’s surge since late March, which had made it the best-performing currency in the world, came to a stop on Sunday when it had its first weekly decline in several weeks on the parallel market.
A BDC operator, Abubakar Taura said, “We sold the dollar today between the rate of N1,50 and N1,270 and it is a bit surprising because we don’t even know the real reason but that is the market, one day there will be profit and another day we make losses.”
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