Electricity Meters Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (EMMAN), the umbrella body for local meter manufacturers, has expressed its commitment to the successful implementation of the Federal Government’s presidential initiative on metering scheme for Nigerians.
This commitment is contained in a joint communiqué issued at the end of a strategic meeting between members of EMMAN and ZIKLAGSIS Networks Limited (ZNL) held on Wednesday, March 23 in Abuja.
According to Muideen Ibrahim, the executive secretary, EMMAN, who issued the joint communiqué, local meter manufacturers have resolved to ensure that their various factories work in full capacity to deliver on the metering needs.
The manufacturers are confident that the metering project will bring about economic revolution and development, as it will create job opportunities for the teeming unemployed Nigerians as well as enhance transfer of technology to the country, Ibrahim said.
He assured that the quality of meters manufactured by EMMAN member companies was of international standards that could compete favourably with any brand from any part of the world, and was also tropicalised for the Nigerian environment to withstand the extreme weather condition such as temperature and humidity.
He further disclosed that one of the major decisions taken at the meeting was that the local manufacturers would produce at least 25,000 meters monthly for a start and with a plan to increase production gradually to meet the metering need, and for ease of deployment.
He also said that EMMAN and ZNL had requested from the Federal Government a two-month lead-time from the day the contract was awarded and commitment made.
While expressing their gratitude to President Muhammadu Buhari for the good initiative and to the minister of power, works and housing, Babatunde Fashola, for his unflinching support for local manufacturers, they pleaded with the government to encourage local manufacturers to continue to be in operations to help reduce unemployment rate by allocating adequate forex to aid their continuous operations.
EMMAN members present at the meeting were Unistar Hi-Tech Systems Limited, Momas Electricity Meters Manufacturing Company Limited (MEMMCOL), Mojec International, EMCON plc, Elsewedy Electric and Ahmed Raji & Co.
The EMMAN also thanked the management of ZNL for patronising the local meter manufacturers thereby helping the country’s economy to grow.
He then restated that the presidential initiative on metering scheme for Nigerians was indeed a good step in the right direction that would bring a lot of improvement in curbing the non-technical losses in the system and contribute immensely to the growth of the country’s GDP in the long run.
