Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, says the Federal Government will disburse a total of N20 billion to electricity distribution companies (DisCos) for the procurement of meters for unmetered Band A customers.
Adebayo disclosed this on Friday at the BusinessDay Energy Conference.
“Before I left the office yesterday, the chairman of NERC was in my office, Alhaji Garba Sanusi, and we have agreed that we have an accrued N20 billion for metering.
“And I said let’s release the N20 billion for the DisCos to procure metres for the unmetered band A customers. Before the end of September, that is going to happen,” he said.
Also, Adelabu said the Federal Government will procure 3.5 million electricity meters in 2024.
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He said the government has put in place the required framework to enable an injection of 1.5 million meters into the power sector through the World Bank Distribution Sector Recovery Programme.
“This year two million meters are going to be procured plus the 1.5 million meters from World Bank. We are going to have 3.5 million meters installed by the year-end,” Adelabu said.
While maintaining that the funding for the initiative is being finalised, he said the government will ensure an annual injection of two million meters “which will be procured for the next five years — that is 10 million meters.”
The Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) in May, had said the Federal Government secured a $500 million World Bank loan to boost electricity distribution in the country.
