FG Begins Nationwide Mass Metering Project

The Federal Government has begun the mass meter­ing of the Nigerian army formations nationwide with a promise to end the era of es­timated billings in the power sector.

Speaking during the flag off of the metering exercise at the headquarters of the 9th Brigade of the Nigerian Army, Ikeja military canton­ment at the weekend, Minis­ter of Power, Adebayo Adela­bu, said the exercise would be in phases with the Ikeja can­tonment being the first phase of the exercise.

He said the current exer­cise will last for six weeks be­fore the second phase began.

Adelabu explained that for the current exercise, the sum of N12.7 billion has been released out of a total of N40 billion for the mass metering project.

“The mass metering in army formations nationwide will enable us know what is being consumed on a month­ly basis in order to ensure appropriate billings and ease collections. The overall inten­tion is to eliminate and make estimated billing a thing of the past”.

The minister who was re­ceived at the army headquar­ters by the Commander, Maj. Gen. A.M Adetuyi and the Chief Executive Officer of De Haryor Global Services, En­gineer Ashade Olatunbosun, who is in charge of the meter­ing project said the current exercise is part of President Bola Tinubu’s renewed hope agenda to ensure regular supply of electricity to army formations, nationwide.

“This is one of Mr. Presi­dent’s objectives as contained in the renewed hope agenda to ensure that electricity supply to the armed forces is prior­itised and they do not suffer especially in the enjoyment of public utilities”.

Adelabu said the smart meters being installed are tamper-proof and would elim­inate energy theft.

“You can not by-pass the meter which also comes with an app where customers can also get statement of their consumption on a monthly basis”.

He revealed further that the meter allows inter con­nectivity between grid and off grid solar power supply.

The minister said that part of the energy blue print for the country is also to build off grid power sources such as solar energy for military bar­racks located in remote areas without grid supply.

“And where we have grid supply, we can interchange between the grid and solar supply if we are not satisfied with the number of hours supplied by the distribution companies (DisCos) . Beyond metering, we have to priori­tise electricity supply to the barracks”, he said.

Adelabu said the metering project would be extended to all military formations in the country with the objective of providing 24 hours power sup­ply to the barracks.

Also speaking, Olatunbo­sun said the second phase of the project will begin in Abuja and Enugu simulta­neously, adding that mili­tary formations across the 11 DisCos will benefit from the exercise.

“Army formations in Jos, Abuja, Ibadan, Enugu, Kadu­na, Ikeja and Eko distribution companies will benefit from the exercise”, he said.

Speaking earlier, Maj. Gen­eral Adetuyi said the Federal Government metering initia­tive is timely as the brigade headquarters has been hav­ing epileptic power supply over time.

“When I investigated, I found out that we were only being given three hours of electricity daily and on some days, we do not even get sup­plied. We have tried to re­solve this and we have even involved the state govern­ment without any result. We also discovered that we were always being given estimated bills, though we would not have minded if power supply had been regular. However, this commendable metering project has gladdened our heart”.