Kaduna Electric has commenced distribution of 20,000 prepaid meters in the first phase of the exercise that will see deployment of 50,000 prepaid smart meters it acquired at the cost of $25 million for customers in its franchise states of Kaduna, Sokoto, Zamfara and Kebbi.
Abdulazeez Abdullahi, head, corporate communication of Kaduna Disco, told BusinessDay that the distribution company was providing the smart meters to customers in Kaduna free of charge in the first batch of the deployment.
A ceremony to mark the launch of the exercise is planned for today in Kaduna, which is expected to be flagged off by Nasir el Rufai, governor of the state at Rimi in Kaduna metropolis.
The Disco held a successful flag-off of the mass deployment of 50,000 prepaid smart meters in its franchise states at a ceremony in Sokoto in October.
“After the successful flag-off ceremony in October we began making preparations to meter our customers. The Kaduna launch will see about 20,000 meters being distributed to our customers and we have started already,” Abdullahi said.
The company is expecting the delivery of more meters before year-end, which will also be deployed to its customers in its franchise states.
He urged customers to embrace the installation of the meters in their homes, as it is a better way of accurately reading the amount of energy consumed by customers and will ensure customers only pay for what they consume.
Recall that Babatunde Fashola, minister of power, works and housing, alongside the Sokoto State Governor Aminu Tambuwal, flagged off the mass meter deployment in October in Sokoto.
Garba Haruna, managing director, Kaduna Electric, reiterated the company’s commitment to metering its customers and had devised a robust metering plan that would see a significant number of customers metered over the next five years.
Electricity customers have often accused the discos of preferring to give them estimated billing rather than meter them.
“The bills are now high and what is most annoying is that, when you don’t have power for like three weeks, you just see a bill emerge even for the three weeks you have not used. Now, who does that,” Omobolaji Fakorede, a customer in Lagos, asked.
The discos on the other hand say a weak naira has made the cost of meters so high and local capacity is inadequate to meet demand.
